Confessions of a Teenage Hitman
by Fish and Chipz
Summary: AU. She didn't realise her life would be ruined once she met him. HibariOC. COMPLETE
1. The Hitman Chronicles

**PLEASE READ:**

This story is NOT a drabble.

Usually, novels are usually split in three parts: The beginning, the middle, and the end – I've realised that as I continued writing this, this fanfic has a three-parts structure, too - The beginning starts off as an introduction to characters and everything is light-hearted and funny. The middle is when things start to get serious and a bomb suddenly appears, creating all sorts of problems. The end is all about the bomb, and how it has to be detonated.

Before I continue to confuse the hell out of you, this story is all about a struggle of the OC. Life is all about struggling even though you probably won't realise or have even come across a situation where you're 'struggling'. A struggle to keep someone happy, a struggle for acceptance in society, a struggle for attention, a struggle to decide what to do and what path to choose, a struggle between choices, a struggle to survive. Anyway, there's lots of struggling. And anguish.

I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn, and be aware of Hibari OOC-ness throughout. I've tried to keep him in character, but I've also realised that the Anime Hibari is actually quite different than Manga Hibari (plus, the animators can't draw him like Amano Akira), so this story is based on what I've read in the manga scanlations I've been using.

**Original Summary:** Hibari Kyouya thought love was for losers, that is, until a hitman hailing from Italy posing as his cousin just has to conveniently come to assassinate him.

Enjoy the story!

* * *

**_Confessions of a Teenage Hitman_**

* * *

**Chapter 01**

_The Hitman Chronicles_

Hibari Kyouya must die.

Really, he must. She had orders to kill him, after all.

The unprofessional hitman had to successfully carry out the assassination of a guy named Hibari Kyouya who lived in Namimori, Japan – whoever he may be – and also not question her family's motives at the same time while she was carrying out this mission. Despite having never receiving proper training in her life yet being thrown into a world of underground criminal activity and malevolence, she was ecstatic for having being chosen out of all candidates for this mission. So therefore, she found herself travelling for at least three quarters of a day by car, coach, train and aeroplane all across from Genoa, Italy, to the other, more oriental side of the world.

And once she set foot in oriental Japan with her one small high-tech and beeping suitcase lagging behind her, she inhaled the unfamiliar smell of soft sakura blossoms in the distance (which actually hadn't bloomed yet) and sighed in bliss. It felt great to be here; the weather was awesome (well, it was much better than it was back in Italy) and there were an abundance of foreign, Japanese hot guys galore (_hot-hot hotties_, she called them). Like fishes in the sea, she was hoping to hook one up… and maybe another while she was at it, ehehe…

She could also do some sightseeing while she was here –maybe go to Disneyland in the capital city of Tokyo, or visit the famed Mt Fuji and bring home a Back-Scratcher of a souvenir. Instead, she took the first bus from the busy, bustling airport to the small and rural municipality of Namimori and eventually arrived at the outskirts of the small, suburban town just in time. Using the free bicycle vouchers she received from the Japanese Tourist Information Centre, she rented a bicycle with stabilisers from the Bike Shop (what? She had never ridden a bike before) and rode through the gate.

Hmm, okay, so where to?

Unfortunately, she had no map. The hitman located the Visitor Information centre first, and smiled politely at passer-bys (so far, no hot-hot hotties because they were still in school, boohoo) in the town centre who were staring at her as she chained the bike to a nearby fence, in progress pulling her still high-tech and beeping suitcase from the back-basket; she entered the establishment, instantly greeted with the sight of two red-faced middle-aged women huddled over a tiny electronic fan glued onto their desk that was going round and round in semi-circles.

She cleared her throat; those Japanese lessons she took beforehand were going to put to test now. "Eto…" She began her sentence… or was it 'Anou'? All she knew was, she wanted to fit in and not look suspicious. "Do you know where I can find _Hibari Kyouya_?" She asked as she walked up to them.

They both stared at the girl with widened eyes. "H-H-Hibari-san?" They squawked, getting up from their seats. They both looked at each other, then at her, and one spoke first. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm… uh…Cousin, yeah, yeah. His cousin. Hicousin!" She giggled awkwardly; waving her hands around for some strange reason before taking out a piece of crumpled letter, having remembered what cover-up she had brought with her.

She handed them the letter.

They gawked wide-eyed as they bought the excuse from the rather unprofessional hitman, and then nodded unsurely. "I see, well…" One of the women said, re-reading through the letter in poorly-written Japanese that illustrated in high detail this little girl's connection with Hibari Kyouya (apparently they used to go the beach together when they were three years old?).

"I'll have to call the Social Services, you may wait here for the moment."

"Eto, right. Okie. Thanks. If you don't mind me asking – What's he like?" Yes, she was just as curious to find what this Hibari Kyouya was like in person, as much as they were curious to know what this cousin of Hibari's was like. Perhaps having a violent trait in their young delinquents ran in the family?

"H-H-Hibari-san?" They both trembled again like jellies. "W-Why, he's the most n-nicest boy you could ever meet. Smart, brave and unselfish."

Hmm. She watched them closely enquiringly; they seemed to be sweating more than ever and one of them even looked deathly pale as the colour drained away from her face at the mere mention of his name.

"Please tell him we said that!" They babbled out, almost simultaneously.

The hitman continued watching them strangely. "… Eto… right…"

…

The Social worker arrived eventually; also looking stuffy-faced and blotchy eyed as the two women did. He dabbed at his forehead with his sweat-cloth, and greeted the undercover hitman - who had been waiting for over forty-five minutes – in a warm and friendly manner, surprisingly. By that time the two women had given her all those sweets they had placed on the counter for free and a carton of lemon tea from their fridge to quench her thirst and hunger after having being strapped down in Economy-class on a plane to Japan from Italy for such a long time.

Unfortunately, the Social Worker failed to see ANY resemblance to Hibari-san at all.

He stared at the girl in the white shirt, waistcoat, light denim skirt and cropped black tights. Her features were very foreign, with light, wavy ginger hair that reached past her shoulders; she had dull green eyes and an innocent yet rather blank, sluggish-dazed look on her face. Her suitcase was pretty small, too, though it looked high-tech in technology (with a password-protected lock feature?) and was beeping at least every five minutes or so.

On the other hand, the Social Worker was balding, rather overweight, and was in the form of a rather unfit mid-forties man, dressed in a smart suit, and apparently the only one who checked up on Hibari Kyouya from now and then in his life – since Hibari Kyouya's parents had passed away, and he was alone – and lived alone.

What really made this hitman ponder was that Hibari Kyouya was also apparently a High Schooler – but was allowed to live in a house by himself? Wasn't that illegal?

"_Hibari Kyouya_… how can I sum him up in three words?" Kenji thought for a moment, and then snapped his fingers as if he had inspiration struck. "I know! Strong. **Cold**. Mystifying. _Terrifying_. Oh wait, that's four."

The hitman blinked dumbly at him.

Kenji immediately turned to her. "Don't tell him I said that!"

"I won't." She replied, turning back to the front as they walked down the empty path. Hmm, it seems that this Hibari Kyouya is some kind of terrorising monster of this town. Maybe she was doing a favour to this town by ridding it of Hibari Kyouya's presence? Wow, maybe she'd be dubbed a hero, then?

"He's only fifteen years old." The Social Worker, who said that she could call him Kenji, told her as they walked onwards to Hibari's house. "You're fifteen too, right?"

"I'm fourteen." The hitman replied back. Her family never told her that she'd have to assassinate a guy who was only older than her one year - wait, why was she getting so worked up over this? It didn't matter what age the target was. Assassinations were to be carried out smoothly and swiftly, regardless of the differences between target and agent. This was, like, the first rule of the hitman.

"So Ottuso-san, you're his cousin?"

The hitman nodded. "Hicousin." She said, "I'm supposed to stay for several weeks and attend Japanese school. Good for psyche and part of assignment."

Kenji didn't seem to understand that last sentence. "I… see." He looked serious all of a sudden. "I have to ask you something, Ottuso-san."

"What?"

He patted her shoulder once they made a right turn, into the neighbourhood. "You do know who you're dealing with, right? Cousin or not."

"Um. Yeah…?"

"Good, well, here we are. Hibari Residence. Looks like Hibari-san's home from school. Strange, he usually has Student Council Meetings on a Thursday." Kenji stopped in front of a rural-looking Japanese building which was completely surrounded by brick walls, so she couldn't really see what the house inside looked like. The only thing she could see of the house was the roof.

They stopped at the large, wooden, two-door gate. Kenji gestured to a small peephole beside the gate – which was actually a hole created by a missing brick in the wall, and told her to look through. She stepped up, and peeped. The house was relatively large, with a light-oak front porch and a large wooden, sliding door (maybe the entrance) and a few overgrown tuffs of weeds hanging over the Hibari Residence's walls. There were wooden windows, and a mantelpiece hanging outside the front door. The only thing that stood out was a small garden shed that was stuck to the side of the wall surrounding the residence – it almost looked similar to some brooding, ominous citadel that was home to a terrifying Frankenstein-creature.

Somehow, the strange ominous presence surrounding the house grew stronger once Kenji knocked on the gates and called for Hibari-san. It wasn't haunted, was it? The hitman had watched _The Grudge_… and it terrified her. She couldn't stand her attic or even her own bed after that.

"Hibari-san?" Kenji called out again. "It's Odagiri Kenji. I've brought someone who's here to see you."

There was a slight silence, and Kenji turned to the hitman and smiled – it was actually more like a nervous smile – and she dismissed it, thinking of something else – like the new face that had emerged from inside the citadel. He was holding one of the doors open to some extent.

Wow.

She certainly did not see this coming.

He was…

_He was…_

**_Beautiful…!_**

The boy was taller than her quite a bit, not as tall as Kenji, who still stood stiffly at almost 6'0 even though having spare tyre round his belly. The boy in front of them had a mop of short black hair that seemed to shine an ethereal bluish colour in the daytime sunlight; his eyes were strikingly dark and unusually slanted, but in a rather eminent way. As he crossed his arms, with a school blazer hanging over his shoulders, the frown that was already on his face deepened immediately.

In other words, he looked pissed.

But the hitman's eyes lit up as she stared him down from head to toe.

_Hot-hot hottie hottiest of them all!_

"What do you want?" He merely said; in fact, she barely noticed his lips move. He spoke in this cool, calm and collected voice – you know, for a fifteen year old kid, Hibari's pretty mature.

_No, not hot-hot hottie hottiest of them all. Well, maybe number 2, not 1._

Kenji began to sweat; she could tell, because he was starting to shine and glisten in the sun, too – not as strong as Hibari's strange, shiny hair, though. Shiny, mmm; the hitman liked shiny things. "H-Hibari-san. This is your… um… cousin. From Italy, Genoa. Her Japanese is not so good."

_Eh? My Japanese isn't that good? But I thought… well, I hope I've been saying the right things since I've been here, then…_

The hitman remembered her reasons for being here and standing in front of a rather (cute, but) scary, weasel, ferrety-looking boy: to get a hot Japanese boyfriend? No, that wasn't it. Ahem. He was met with a dubious aura that was wafting through the atmosphere, as she then stared back up at him with new, distrustful eyes. "Cousin?" He then said, his tone actually went a different notch – it was in between inquisitiveness yet with a deep lilt of annoyance – he was still eyeing the petite girl back.

"Yes, her name is – ah… uh… " Kenji took out a piece of paper, and his respectful spectacles, then began reading the words scribbled over the paper. "It's… well, her full name, including her middle name is… _Ottuso_ _Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole_. Do you recognize it, Hibari-san? Anou, Ottuso-san, your name quite is also mouthful. How do you want us to address you?"

Indeed, that was her full name and although it sounded unnecessary, she was extremely proud of her grand, elaborate Italian heritage - "Kiriyuu. Call me Kiriyuu." She then blurted out, thinking that she should say something to ease up this already-turning-bad situation. Seriously, anyone with eyes could see that this was becoming an awkward first-meeting between a guy and his alleged cousin. She knew this was not a normal conversation. This Hibari was awfully weird, too. He wasn't helping this situation at all.

"Hibari-san, may we come in to discuss things further?" Kenji asked, scratching his elbow.

Hibari didn't say anything, except open the door for them just a little, and then turned back round, walking back inside his house, where the front porch door was open, thus fully exposing the rest of his house to the lucid summer heat – and to the hitman's delight, the interior of a boy's house. Kenji egged her to enter first, so she did, taking note of her rather authentic surroundings whilst watching Hibari's retreating back. Kenji shut the door behind them, and then began to lead the way. Well, all they had to do was walk forward ten steps, and they were inside.

He stopped inside where Hibari was, at the front lounge; just outside the hall where at least five pairs of shoes were littering the wooden floor. The hitman didn't know that guys had more than two pairs of shoes in their lifetime. Yes, she was pretty shallow. Her attention was diverted from the shoes. The next room was quite large, with barely anything in it, except from a flat-screen LCD TV, the table Hibari was sitting at with his homework and books, and a few cushions. There was a sofa at the end of the room, but other than that, nothing much. A few paintings hung from the wall, too, all in kanji which she couldn't exactly read – something about red pigs flying in the sky of water? Hmm, maybe not.

Kenji gestured to her to sit down opposite Hibari at the small table, and then he sat down beside her.

There was a slight silence; and the only noise going in the household was the faint, rushing sound of water from the garden somewhere – and Kenji's heavy breathing that was irritating the hitman. She hated it when people who breathed too loudly.

"Kiriyuu, let me do the speaking since your Japanese is not good - Ahem. Hibari-san, as I was saying. Kiriyuu has come all the way from Italy to Namimori. According to the letter Kiriyuu showed me, she's your mother's third sister's husband's brother-in-law's second wife's daughter. Well, she's related to you anyway, not exactly **blood-related**, but still related." Kenji stopped, intaking a huge breath of air. "Can she stay with you until then?"

Hibari's eyebrow twitched.

"S-She's your cousin!" Kenji then exclaimed nervously.

"… Why didn't I receive any prior notice of this?"

"E-Erm… I-I don't know… the Information Centre just told me that a girl – Kiriyuu – had ventured into the shop asking where to find Hibari-san, and then she said that she was Hibari-san's cousin, so… well, they called me and told me to come."

"I see. And where is this letter?"

Kenji hurriedly showed Hibari the letter, and the hitman began to sweat.

_Will Hibari buy this at all?_

A few moments later, Hibari refolded the letter back properly and then handed it back to Kenji. "…How long will she be staying for?"

The hitman inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. _He bought it!_

But Hibari didn't look too happy. Well, duh! Imagine if some weird person came into your home telling you that they would be staying here for some time… And you didn't even know anything about it, either!

"W-Well, she told me that she'd be staying for several weeks to attend Namimori and see how a Japanese school works."

"So, she's a transfer student." Hibari then replied; he looked tired already. "_Fine_."

Kenji's eyes lit up, and he smiled, quite frankly. "…You'll let her stay then, Hibari-san?"

"Yes," Hibari said, "but as long as she doesn't _disobey_me."

Kenji and the hitman heard that loud and clear. Her eyes widened for a brief moment as she gawked at Hibari. "H-Huh?" They both squeaked.

Hibari's lips curved up into a smirk. "Got that?"

That was directed to the girl; Kenji glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, and then elbowed her quickly. She left her newly-acquired stupor of staring at the cowlick on top of Hibari's head and then just stared at him dumbly again, before finally nodding slowly in response. Then she turned to Kenji, tugging at his sleeve.

"Thirsty." She said.

"You're thirsty, Ottuso-san?" Kenji asked, looking at her dried lips.

The hitman nodded again.

"Hibari-san, can she - ?"

In response, the boy flashed a quick glare to Kenji, who squeaked again, and dabbed at his sweating forehead with the sweatcloth. "I-I'll get you a drink, Ottuso – "

She shook her head. "No, I can get it myself. You two talk."

"Oh? Then… K-Kitchen's down that way, Ottuso-san…"

"I'll get a drink for Hibari-san and Kenji-san too." The hitman said, before dwaddling off into the kitchen.

"U-Uh… sure?" Kenji called after her, glancing at Hibari, who just ignored them.

Once inside the kitchen, the hitman thought for a sharp moment; right, her chance. Her chance to assassinate Hibari Kyouya – She could tell there was something wrong with him – he's like a bad egg. Anyway, even if he is a fifteen year old kid, still attending school, with parents who had passed away ages ago, he was going to die.

_I'll give him the chance to join them, then._

Oh, and if you're wondering how a hitman managed to get through airport security, let's just say hitmen have ways of disguising things. Plus, she had help from her Senior Hitmen in disguising all the things. For her sake, she was in disguise of an innocent-looking fourteen year old (which she was, to be honest) holding a teddy-bear with a gun concealed inside, hidden amidst the stuffing. The stuffing was so thick that the computers in the airport could not X-ray the teddy-bear properly. The high-tech and beeping suitcases deflected everything the X-Ray picked up, therefore did not display her secret stashes up on the screen at all.

The hitman set three glasses on the counter top; then filled them up with water from the tap and she fumbled around her pockets, bringing out a small sachet of white powder, before cackling gleefully to herself.

It was rat poison.

She grinned widely as she emptied the white powder into a cup, and mixed it thoroughly by swirling the glass around. The poison dissolved and integrated with the water well. Yup, he'll drink the water and then froth on the floor wondering why his untimely death had happened as the poison slowly kills him internally. He'll experience a severe abdominal pain first, and as he's laying there bleeding, the poison would then slowly paralyze him, thus inducing further excruciating last moments. It'll also look as if his bereavement was because of faulty pipes of his house with lead entering the water system. A good plan, the hitman had to admit.

_Kyaaahahaha! Hibari Kyouya. Time to say your prayers!_

If you're also wondering how someone could live like that, or be like that, or think like that, especially for a fourteen year old girl, well, there are some weird people out there. If there wasn't, there wouldn't be people with necrophilia or people obsessed with cannibalism and perhaps mud, would there? Although, the hitman wasn't _that_bad. No, she was still sane, and she would probably feel bad for Hibari for at least five minutes. Then she'd move on and return to Italy and get her reward. She emerged from the kitchen and back into the lounge with the three glasses; the one with poison would be given to Hibari first.

"Hibari-san, your water." She said, hiding her growing anticipation, bending down to his level with his poisoned glass. _This is it! Arrividerci, Hibari Kyouya. Even if you are a hot-hot hottie. I don't discriminate people by their looks. Nice meeting you. Not!_

Suddenly, her hand accidentally brushed against his as she was settling the glass down - and everything went slow-motion. There was a flash of quick silver. The glass was then flying out of her hand. Kenji's jaw had dropped in response at the flying tumbler, and Hibari didn't even bother to look up.

The hitman's eyes widened as the cup sailed into the air. "Noooo-oooo-oooooh….!"

Landing back down on the ground, the cup smashed into tiny glass fragments glittering in the afternoon daylight, and the poisoned contents began sizzling a hole through the wooden floorboards. Then everything went back to the normal pace. The hitman stared with her mouth agape, stunned and astounded for a brief moment.

"Touch me again…" Hibari broke the uneasy silence as Kenji and the hitman continued staring at the smoking hole on the floor. He looked at the hitman without moving his head, his hand curling around the handle of a collapsible, steel tonfa that had seemingly come out from nowhere. "… And _I'll bite you to **death**_."

The hitman stopped staring, and closed her jaw, before averting her transfixed stare to Hibari. _Damn it_, she inwardly cursed with a growl. As Kenji began squawking about leaded, polluted water and 'thank goodness Hibari-san never drank it' and 'that was close', the hitman glowered angrily at Hibari, and he glared at her in response.

_Hibari._

_Kyouya._

_Must._

**_Die._**

_Really, he must._

_I've got orders to kill him, after all._

Although, something told her that it wouldn't be so easy.

* * *

This story was born from an EXTREME PLOT BUNNY I had a long time ago. Seriously. So here are the general warnings for the overall story which you should take into account before you proceed:

**WARNINGS:**

Mary-Sue  
Strong language  
Strong violence  
Drug references  
Disturbing themes  
Murder  
Melodrama  
OOC  
Randomness/crack/Silliness/Fluff


	2. Hibari Kyouya Must Die

Thanks for the reviews; I really appreciate them! Here's the second chapter! :)

Oh yeah, I made Hibari an orphan btw.

* * *

**Chapter 02**

_Hibari Kyouya Must Die_

It was raining, and the hitman never thought that she would have to resort to get all nasty and up close and especially personal for the kill – sure, it'll be manslaughter this way, but so what? Manslaughter was featured in the newspapers every day. What would make this so different? Oh, right, it'd be the upsetting murder of a fifteen year old boy who was found in his bedroom with twenty four stab wounds, making front page Namimori news for the next three months.

She had waited all day, and her patience was finally running out. She waited, and waited, and waited, until night fell and the house was quiet once again; she stopped watching the dancing shadows of the tree that was wavering in the harsh wind outside her window and got up from her bed, and out of her bedroom. There was no light in the hall, but she could see perfectly well. No, she was not an owl, she just had night-vision goggles on, that was all. She grabbed the meat knife from the kitchen cabinet and made her way to Hibari's room, opening the door as silently as she could.

Thunder crashed outside and the rain pattered down on the walls as the door creaked open, revealing the silhouette of a figure holding a knife; she closed Hibari's door silently behind her.

As she approached his bed, she didn't even bother to pull back the covers; she just plunged the knife into the lying figure and pulled it back out. Breathing heavily, she whipped back the covers and then - disaster struck!

Hibari wasn't there? Instead, 'he' was replaced with a couple of pillows.

"What are you doing in my room?"

The hitman turned around slowly, heart beating faster than ever, and swallowed, trying to hide the knife – oh, and don't forget the night-vision goggles, too. "U-Uh… I… I…"

He had been standing behind her, and then he roughly grabbed her wrist, that she let go of the knife. It clattered to the ground. She looked up at him, terrified of what he was going to do.

"If I ever catch you in my bedroom again, I'll bite you to death."

And then he lunged forward, biting into her neck.

The hitman screamed.

…..

"Argh!"

She woke up in a tussle of covers, sweating heavily, her hand had slammed over the spot where Hibari should've bitten her – instead, she got a dead, flattened mosquito that had been sucking at her neck, harvesting her fresh, foreign blood for the past few minutes in the middle of the night. Ewww.

Japan…She would never get used to it. Especially the weather. Sigh…

"…Just a dream… Just a dream…"

So her terrifying, murder-turn-horror movie of a nightmare had shaken her so badly that the unprofessional hitman left her new room and waddled off into the kitchen from the main hall from earlier on just to get a glass of water.

Oh, wait. She remembered, and yelled out in frustration. Kenji had called the plumber that dangerous, poisonous lead had seeped into Hibari's house water supply so everything water-related was temporarily grinded to a halt - so Hibari and the hitman weren't allowed water. Not even water to drink, wash, cook, clean, or water to take a bath. No water! And the hitman was beginning to smell a bit, too.

Damn, now she realised how much humans needed water. Feeling cheated out of basic luxury, she sat down against the wall, thirsty like a dehydrated dog yet sweating buckets, that she removed her nightshirt and just lay against the cool wooden boards in her teddy-bear vest and lipstick-print knickers, her eyes closed, hair splayed over her face. It was an ungodly hour; she really doubted that Hibari would come barging out and see her in her underwear glory. Or if it really did happen, she thought she'd then die of embarrassment.

But what are the odds of that happening? Ahaha…

And no, she didn't really kill Hibari. Not even in her dreams. She admitted she hated seeing blood, yet her mind stored and created manifestations of very strange and violent demises of people. She hadn't had a chance to kill him since the poisoned water incident, and Hibari kept all pointy things away from her anyway – in fact, he stashed them in HIS room. Should she be feeling afraid instead?

Another brownie point to Hibari - he can fight. He's a fifteen year old boy who wields a pair of steel tonfas. And he used them to destroy her attempted assassination, but hasn't seemingly suspected anything strange yet. After all, she's not run around him in circles waving a sword or a gun in front of his face. So she was a harmless little Italian girl who wuvs teddies and pink.

_Well, you keep thinking that, Hibari!_

She thought again, and wondered if Hibari had a license to wield such dangerous weapons.

Damn it, for some reason, she also couldn't stop thinking about him – or looking at him. Surprisingly enough, Hibari didn't seem to notice that she ogled at him from halfway across the room whenever they came in contact.

Anyway, now NOT talking or thinking or pondering or doing anything else that was about Hibari - She was hungry, too. Hibari (damn it, there she went again!) and the hitman had only interacted for less than a day and she realised that living here with him is a one-man test of survival – or in her case, a one-hitman test of survival. Yes, he doesn't care what would happen her. He didn't provide her with a meal, or anything else that she'd find suitable to keep her alive for today.

After Kenji left, they just avoided each other.

Her new room was a small, tiny box room big enough to rival a typical janitor's closet with a bed crammed in the side, a mini window and a lightbulb hanging from a string on the ceiling. Her suitcase was jammed against the wall, taking up at least two thirds of breathing and moving space.

He shoved her in and told her not to come out or face the consequences of disrupting him. The hitman slipped out anyway, enraged for being treated this way, especially by her target, and then he began chasing her with his tonfa – no, not really. He cornered her in the living room and she had screamed, bracing for impact before he could hit her.

And yes, he hit girls. It meant that he didn't discriminate against people just because of their gender and certainly treated them equally. But still - Dreadful little boy, isn't he? It's a shame his parents aren't here. They probably could've taught him some manners.

So there she sat in her little box room with not even an icepack (remember, no water?) to help her with her bruise and bleeding lip woes. And even though she thought she would've gotten a break from her school back in Italy, she had been ordered to attend Namimori Junior High, too!

Anyway, concerning Hibari -

It was **_war_**! Damn it, if she knew she was no match for Hibari, she wouldn't have been so stupid and accepted this mission. Still, there were many ways to kill someone besides using brute force, which she knew she was no match in Hibari against.

But if she returned back now, she'd be in big trouble with her family! She could even get…Gulp…_Killed_. They'll tie her up and lead her marching out into the courtyard, line her against the wall, wrap a blindfold over her eyes and shoot ten thousand holes into her with their guns. Crap, she had to go through with this then. She had to survive here, or she wouldn't survive anywhere at all.

Therefore, she would have to resort to her brains. Although a recent IQ test she took revealed that her IQ was at level 101.

_So what could be possibly worse than this?_

Suddenly, the wall disappeared from behind her and she fell back onto the floor, staring up into the eyes of whom else, but Hibari. He stared at her in all her underwear splendour. Then his eyebrow twitched, a bit fiercely, and he tore his eyes away, once he had seemingly gotten an eyeful of teddy-bears and lipstick print material. ARGH! The horror! The horror… Both Hibari and the hitman felt undoubtedly violated…

She quickly pulled her shirt back over herself and rolled away from him. Oh, it turned out that she had also just coincidentally decided to 'camp' outside his room; damn it, why do Japanese doors have to look like the walls with the rice-paper and everything?

"What are you doing out of your room?" Hibari barked at her.

"N-Nothing!" She squawked, and then she immediately got back up, running towards the direction of her room with her arms flailing around.

Wait, this wasn't right. She shouldn't be scared of him! Her family was even worse! Whatever Hibari did to her was nothing near to what her family would do to her! After a few seconds; she mustered her remaining, tiny spot of courage and clutching the cornered panelling, she poked her head around the corner, staring at Hibari who was still at his door, glaring at her.

"It's too hot." She squeaked out. "And I've got jetlag."

Hibari's expression didn't change, but he walked out of his room anyway, and came back with a glass of soft drink, and she continued watching him beadily, clutching onto the wall.

"What's the point of giving you a room when you won't even sleep in it?" He said, before slamming the door shut behind him, and she didn't hear a peep from him since then until morning.

She was still sleeping in the same spot when his alarm clock from inside his room sounded off. Three minutes later, the door was opened, and Hibari walked up to the corner where she was, still lying there, with dried drool encrusted over her cheek. "Hurhhh? Wha… Che ora e…?" she said groggily in Italian, wiping at her eyes as she sat back up.

She stared at the clock that was firmly attached to the living room wall. "…6am? Are you kidding me?"

He lifted a flip-flop foot and booted her to the side; she went egg-rolling and bumped heads with the wall panelling. "Oof!" If she wasn't feeling so sleepy, she'd have – er… well, she would've done something to him anyway!

_Like plunge a knife into his heart. Haha. Like as if that'd ever happen._

"Get up. We're going." He said, crossing his arms over his chest – he wasn't wearing the school uniform, but a casual t-shirt and denims. Ooh, now he looked even more hot-hot hottier. The hitman mentally smacked herself across the face twice.

"…Going where?"She muttered, rubbing her poor, aching back.

Hibari didn't even bother to help her up once she managed to sit back up. "The bath house. Now hurry up."

He only gave her five minutes to get changed before barging into her box room and shooing her out using more brute force – so all she could do was a bloody tank top, skirt and wedge sandals. Hibari also made her carry the bag of towels and other stuff and then promptly marched out of the door, with her lagging behind.

"You're so slow." He called over his shoulder; they were probably about a foot away from each other on the path. The hitman gritted her teeth. Well, excuse her for only having three hours of sleep!

Hmm, so this is how cousins treat each other? Well, they're not exactly cousins. More like acquaintances being forced to interact with one another. The hitman did a double take – Hibari could've left her to stink up his house for all he cared and go to the bath house himself – but he didn't. What did this mean? Does Hibari even have friends? If he did, was this how he treated them?

She growled at him and began cursing at him colourfully in Italian. Finally, they arrived at the bath house, and Hibari grabbed the bag off her aching arms, taking out whatever he had stuffed inside. He handed her a towel, and a toothbrush, then decided that they'd be sharing the only toothpaste, before venturing into the men's area with his own towel and toothbrush. So far, the only good thing was that they'd be able to freshen up for free because of Hibari's apparent fearsome reputation in Namimori.

…

Ahhh, bliss. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to sleep while you have a bath or you'd end up waking suddenly with wrinkly skin that would match a 90 year old woman – so the hitman resorted to drifting in and out of consciousness, while standing in the steaming bath water with the towel firmly wrapped around her body. Despite this being a first-time experience in an onsen, she didn't seem to be utilising this experience to the fullest.

Hibari didn't supply her with a bobble, so her hair was all wet and tangled over her shoulders. In fact, she then wondered what Hibari would look like if he tied up his short hair. More stupid and outrageous thoughts ensued, debating in her half-asleep mind. Because they were so early, they were also the only people here; the men's bath that was behind her was equally and unusually as quiet.

Well, she didn't expect Hibari to be singing while he took a bath.

"Hey… Hibari…" She mumbled out, struggling to keep her eyes open. "You okay in there? Pretty quiet… -yawn-… sleepy… people could drown in here without even knowing…"

Silence.

"… Hibari? You've not… drowned, have you?" She muttered wobbly, grabbing onto a fake plastic rock and beginning to climb out of the bath. "Not heard a peep from you for some time… getting kinda worried…"

Why was a hitman getting worried over her target? Eh, well, maybe it was because she wanted to be the one who assassinated him – and not let her target die accidentally by drowning. Hmm, what an awful excuse just to check up on someone and see if they were okay.

She tried to see over the wooden wall that separated the bath, only to stand on tiptoes, leaning against it. "Hibari?" Suddenly, the board gave way, and she shrieked, as she toppled head-first into the boiling hot water of the men's bath. She re-surfaced, spluttering helplessly, and dabbed at her eyes before looking around.

"Hibari…? Eto… Where are you?"

Eventually, she located him in a small corner, with a flannel over his face.

"Oh my god! He's unconscious!" She yelped, wading towards him as fast as she could; that could explain why he was so quiet! "Hibari!" She yelled, latching onto his shoulders and shaking him to and fro.

The flannel fell off his face as she shook him like a ragdoll, and then he cracked one eye open. "WHAT?"

She let go of him almost immediately. "Oh… so you're not unconscious?"

"…" That usual look on his face, now with a deep frown, returned. "No."

"O-Oh, s-sorry… I thought you were… uh… never mind, eto."

"You're in the wrong bath."

Hmm, maybe she could try and patch up her already-bad relationship with Hibari? Well, she did the one that she did best – sucking up to people. "I know that! I was…uh… worried."

Suddenly, the frown turned upside down. "Oh, so not only are you slow, but also intensely stupid."

It took a full minute for that to register in her mind.

"Hey!" Her lip wobbled in response; she opened her mouth to retort, but she couldn't think of anything; so she closed her mouth and frowned. So one-sided …. Hibari was really a mean person! She felt her pride withering into dust. She waded away from him even though she stubbed her toe at the same time, then clambered out of the bath with watering eyes and began making her way back to the woman's bathtub.

But then suddenly, her feet touched something slushy and slimy and after a few moments of flailing her arms around wildly in the air – it felt like something from the movie '_Bridget Jones' Diary_' – she fell.

…..

She woke up, and everything came back to her fuzzily – she slipped on something, and then her head connected with something hard – and now she had woken up still with memory of her identity and where she was, only to find Hibari hovering above her. She blinked, and then tried to get up, but found out that her head also hurt like hell.

"…What happened?" She ended up asking instead.

"You slipped on a bar of soap and hit your head on a plastic rock, knocking yourself out for almost half an hour."

She went deadly silent; the only emotion she was suffering at the moment was embarrassment, yes, oh definitely. What was worse was that it had to happen in the towel – that was actually draped over her. Oh, so she guessed that not only did she trip and hit herself, but her towel also flew off in progress, too, and Hibari must've put it back over her – seeing as they were the only people here! _ARRGHHHH!_

"D-Did you see… anything?" She squeaked out, lip trembling again.

"You have nothing worth to look at."

He ignored the look of horror that was scribbled over her face; in fact, her face even went a nice crimson shade. "Somehow, you always find a way to hurt yourself without having me to personally hospitalize you. You're quite amusing."

By no means, was this a compliment.

Silence.

Then –

"**_WHAT?_**"

That was it.

_Hibari Kyouya must DIE!_

* * *

Yes, this chapter was another introduction chapter. It'll get better soon!


	3. My Camaraderie and Me

**Chapter 03**

_My Camaraderie and Me_

_Screw the knife_, she thought. _I'll just shoot him instead._

A gun would do the job.  
It was THAT simple.

The hitman returned back home with Hibari after the fateful incident in the bath house, ashen-faced and embarrassed to ever show her face back in there again even though no-one seemed to know what happened between Hibari and the hitman, except from Hibari - and the hitman. Apparently, there would be no school for the next few days, because it was a public Japanese holiday. Which one it was, she didn't know. Heck, she didn't even care. She just wanted her mission accomplished and over. She wanted to go back home!

She stormed back into her room and opened her suitcase, taking everything out – dangerous C4 explosives, noxious gas, tiny daggers, and all sorts of other torture devices. She fished out her teddy bear, and was glad to have ripped the wretched toy to pieces to fish out her WES-44 magnum style revolver. The hitman put the other killing devices back inside the suitcase and loaded the 4-bullet gun with only 2 bullets – since that was all she had for this gun after last weeks' gun fight back in Genoa – not just that, but this was her only gun, unfortunately – since they deemed her too clumsy to wield anything else dangerous that could fire more than 10 bullets from a 20 metre distance at a firing rate per millisecond.

Since it only held 4 bullets – it meant the hitman was actually left out of all the action.

And Hibari Kyouya couldn't be this lucky this time.

No, he had a half chance of shooting himself. The odds weren't good. That was the point; she'd have him shoot himself. After all, she hated getting her hands dirty. The hitman frankly disliked violence to an extent - which was a complete contradiction to her status. Her head started to hurt as a mental debate began. If she was a hitman, how could she possibly resent violence to some degree?

"I better check if this thing still works. Last time I checked, the revolver was a bit rickety..." She muttered regardless, giving the gun a few slaps around - she accidentally applied too much pressure down on the trigger at the same time and wasted a bullet into her pillow. Her jaw dropped. "ARGH! That was so stupid!! One bullet left..."

_Great. Just great!_ She smirked in spite anyway, and took her gun; slammed the door to her bedroom shut and marched through the hallway, thinking that this would probably the last time she'd be stepping foot in this house again, before pounding on Hibari's door heavily with the gun and her clenched fist. Who cares if she was violating one of his laws in his house? The law to 'Never disrupt him if he was in his room'?

Unfortunately for the hitman, he was conveniently not in his room.

Grumbling incoherently, she marched into the living room, and located him sitting at the table, surrounded by his holiday homework. She bit her lip as she protruded out the gun, this would definitely be IT. Even if neighbours heard the loud bang and the dull thud of a body hitting the floor, covered in a pool of blood, she didn't care.

"Hibari Kyouya, I challenge you to a game of Russian Roulette!" She demanded angrily at him, pointing the gun in front of his nose. But then she stared at the tray of food that was in front of him. Her stomach gurgled.

_Getting kinda hungry… ARGH! Who cares? I will kill him first! But still….I want some food…_

"… And where did you get that?" Hibari eyed the gun suspiciously, and moved his breakfast to a safe spot away from her vulture eyes.

"Be quiet." She said, nervously, looking away from the mouth-watering food and glaring at him dangerously. "Are you going to play or not?"

"I have better things to do than play childish games with you." He replied, going through his notes.

He had mountains of homework and files to go through. Being the head of the Disciplinary Committee didn't mean you had no work, even if you were a scary weasel-boy who controlled immense power over perhaps the entire town by wielding two tonfas, using rather illiterate, specially chosen, life-threatening mottos against your enemies… and apparently, Hibari had a detective-case of a bathroom smoker to go through, too.

"Are you scared?" She taunted him deliberately as she sat in front of him. "Oooh! Hibari Kyouya's scared of a fake gun! How _pathetic_."

His eyes narrowed dangerously. Well, whenever someone scorned him and his demeanour, that person would be seeing stars in three seconds. But not her, not this way anyway. Oh, she was going to pay even worse afterwards. He grabbed the gun, but at the same time, the dangerous faint light of his tonfas gleamed to her, concealed within his sleeves. Damn, Hibari Kyouya had a license to kill. But she wasn't scared anymore; instead, she watched carefully as Hibari pointed the gun to his temple, and his finger curled over the trigger.

The grin on her face began to widen immediately.

Hibari watched this crazed-eager look on her face, but shrugged it off anyway; like as if this was a real gun anyway.

_Right?_

He pulled the trigger --

And…

_And?_

And nothing happened.

The grin on the hitman's face was wiped off immediately. Hibari put down the gun. "Looks like Lady Luck is on my side today." He smirked at her in response, and carried on with his work.

Suddenly, a trail of dark red blood spilled from the hitman's bottom lip and dripped down onto a sheet of Hibari's homework; she had biting down on her lip so badly that it was bleeding. "Give me that!" She yelled furiously at him, pulling the gun back – unfortunately, his finger was still around the trigger, and then –

_BANG!_

Hibari and the hitman gaped at the new hole in the ceiling directly above them; then he turned to her, glaring fiercely. She actually thought she had been shot with the gun herself, but no, the ceiling suffered instead. She took her now-empty gun back silently and swallowed anxiously.

There was a strange crackling noise, and the hitman blinked at the grey specks that were floating around her from above, then in a split second, she was sent flying ten feet away.

Hibari had shoved her away from the desk, and they landed a safe distance from the desk onto the floor, where a large pile of debris and brick had fallen on top, completely and simultaneously destroying Hibari's desk and his homework at the same time.

Well, if Hibari was a slacker who hated homework, he'd have thanked her graciously for that.

But unfortunately, he wasn't.

They blinked at each other for a few moments, and then he got off her, inspecting his smashed desk, his grey-homework and the new hole in his ceiling which stood out the most. He turned back to her, growling under his breath; she was still lying on the floor, blinking stupidly. He marched back over to her and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt roughly. "You're going to fix that, right now." He growled at her.

The hitman stared at him in that stupid mouth-agape-resembling-a-goldfish look again. She looked at her gun, and then back at him. "You… saved me." She didn't stop staring at him imprudently yet, and hiccupped in his face. "… Y-You saved _**me**_." She stammered out.

He raised an eyebrow, wondering what the hell was going on through her possible pea-size brain now.

"… I'll… I'll fix it." She added, putting the now-empty gun back into her pocket.

Huh? That was a strange reaction indeed.

The hitman found herself perched atop of a ladder with a toolbox and a few rolls of duct tape – even though the plumber who would be coming this afternoon to check on the house's water supply could also fix the hole at the same time. If only Hibari wasn't so threatening … She also had a few new bruises over her body, more bleeding wounds and her arm felt rather dead.

Hibari leisurely sat across from her, having saved his homework by using one of her shirts that was thrown carelessly on her bedroom floor to wipe away the debris and dust that fell on top of it, and his food which he had wisely put a safe distance away. He sat there eating, and she watched him morosely as her stomach growled. She was _starving_.

"Stop staring and get back to work." He said, without looking at her, as she peeled a lengthy piece of duct tape out and firmly attached it to over the hole.

Her lip wobbled, and she averted her gaze from the good-looking food and took out the pair of scissors. She stopped attaching the last piece and then clambered down the ladder, before collapsing in a heap at the foot of the ladder. She stared up at him hungrily.

"Can I have something to eat?"

"No."

"Can I have something to eat?"

"You asked that already."

"So what's your answer?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"If you ask another question I will not hesitate to kill you."

She shivered immediately, shut up as he had requested ever-so-politely (not), stood back up and stormed over to the kitchen, arriving in front of the rather technologically advanced-looking fridge. She jerked at the door – regrettably for her, it was **password protected**. The hitman felt her blood soaring up to a hundred degrees in temperature.

"Damn you, Hibari Kyouya!" She screamed, before stomping back towards him. He didn't look up at her.

She resisted the urge to kick his desk over and resume in a diva tantrum. "What the hell am I supposed to do for food then?" She barked at him furiously.

"You could catch that." He pointed back outside.

The hitman blinked stupidly for a moment as she followed the direction of his finger – and her gaze landed on a chicken that was strutting around his yard, pecking at the ground. Her jaw dropped, and she gawped back at him.

"… Y-You're serious?"

The glare on his face made her back away, she felt her legs trembling.

She really was afraid of him. No matter what he did! But she had a better idea for food. She stepped away from Hibari and retreated back into her room. He watched her, rather inquisitively, as she re-emerged back a few minutes later with a metal stick, carrying a roll of string. She ignored him and promptly left the house.

………..

Hibari was bored.

Despite having a chicken for a 'pet', there was nothing else chickens did but peck at the ground and lay eggs. B-O-R-I-N-G.

Homework had been pretty boring. But Hibari sought not to view his homework that way. The plumber arrived and left pretty soon; it turned out that there was nothing wrong with the water at all and it was just a fluke, so they didn't have to go back to the bath house for that evening too. Water was back, hurray! He also patched up the hole in the ceiling, too. Hurray again! Anyway, the plumber quickly ran out of his house after that, trembling and shaking when he told Hibari that the service was free of charge.

Wow, Hibari's influential power really was great, huh?

Unfortunately for Hibari, even though his 'cousin' had only been living with him for almost a complete day, his two-storey house seemed to be bigger and quieter than usual. Hibari couldn't seem to remember much what his life was like when he lived there alone – even though she** had** only lived with him for a day. Then again, with his 'cousin' here, nothing did seem to change. Hibari's life was still rather solitary. Hmm, he wasn't lonely, was he?

No way! As if! Hibari still had his cell-phone. He could call his peers – in his case, the people in his contact book would be members of the Disciplinary Committee such as Kusakabe-san, Kenji the Social Worker, and other Civil Services who he could always blackmail whenever he felt like it. For the Disciplinary Committee, he'd be roaring orders down the phone and then put the phone down five minutes later. He always topped up at least enough yen to last him a full month but still ended up not topping up again for the next three months because he still had the credit from the last top-up.

Did that tell him something?

Anyway, his 'cousin' was gone for a pretty long time with the metal pole and string. Even though Kenji said her Japanese wasn't good, it seemed pretty okay to him. She had a dodgy accent, that was all. If she had went for the chicken that had seemingly come from nowhere, he'd have her skinned and roasting over a spit, because of his affinity for birds.

Hmm, maybe that was what was missing. A bird. He needed a pet bird – budgies, or a parrot, definitely not chickens. He'll probably name it Hibird. Right now, he'd uncaringly dub his cousin 'Hicousin' – but she knew that already.

He got up from his seat, watching outside the window; the street lights were starting to come on, and the time was almost 9 o'clock. Where the hell was that stupid girl? Actually, it was an insult to call his cousin 'Hicousin' because she didn't deserve it. As if he wanted a cousin anyway – or a cousin to be living with him.

Also, if she was a transfer student here, why did she only bring that tiny suitcase with her? He really doubted that it could carry a lot of clothes – oh, and he had to get a new uniform for her, too.

Too bad he didn't know what size she was.  
Well, for now.

Hibari walked up to her room and pulled open the door; a moth that had been zooming circles around the lightbulb came fluttering out to freedom – he waved it off him and then went over to pile of clothes on top of her un-made bed. What a messy person; the room already smelled different and even the atmosphere was thick with some kind of miasma. He picked up the clothes she was wearing yesterday and looked at the tag. It was average; then he picked up her flip flops and looked at the size – it was pretty big. So what did that mean?

Oh. 'Hicousin' had huge (and possibly clown) feet.

Next, he went to her suitcase that was lying in the corner. It looked pretty innovative, and fizzed and beeped as he lifted it up; pretty heavy… He tried to open it.

Unfortunately, it was **password-protected**.

Damn it.

…………

The hitman was hopelessly lost.

She dangled a couple of freshly caught fish from her pole as she left the canal banks almost an hour ago. Namimori sure looked different at night time. In the end, she still had nothing proper to eat and she felt awful, in mental and physical effort. The hitman was tired and cold. She wanted to desperately go home now, but all the houses looked the same, and she thought she had walked past this street twice. But she pondered how she managed to find the canal in the first place; oh, there was a map on the wall somewhere with Hibari's house in big shiny lettering, but now she couldn't seem to find it anymore.

What she was really pissed off was that she also had no money to go and buy something to eat. Well, she could always go street performing. She wondered what kind of talent she had. She knew she couldn't sing, or dance. Maybe she'd dress up like a monkey and do some acrobats. She was pretty good at that. Sort of. That's what the gymnastic medals she earned when she was seven seemed to prove. So… Err… maybe not. She found the first bus stop which was empty, and sat down. Okay, so now what?

She waited for a long time. In fact, she didn't really know what she was waiting for, and just leant back against the bus shelter wall, staring at the dark sky and counting the stars for some pointless reason. She waited for a long time that she even fell asleep, even though it was extremely cold outside, and the noise of traffic was annoying. She dreamt about a lot of stuff; first, about her family, then about Hibari, and his funeral. It made her laugh.

"There you are."

She stopped laughing in her sleep as a rough hand on her shoulder shook her solidly and she jerked up, rubbing her eyes, hands curling protectively over her stick with the fish. She looked up at the boy.

"… Hibari?"

"It's lights out in ten minutes." He said, lifting her up and dragging her back out of the bus stop by the wrist. He had spent quite a long time looking for her; it was eleven o'clock now. It was pretty amazing that she hadn't been carried off by some thugs yet. Then again, he questioned himself, who'd want to go off with her? With average looks and nothing else but stinking fish hanging from a piece of string. Didn't anyone tell her that the fish in the canal was prohibited to be fished and eaten? Anyone caught fishing would be in trouble. Oh well, not his problem.

The journey was silent; he hadn't let go of her wrist yet and she lingered beside him silently and sulkily.

"Hey. Hibari?" The hitman perked up at him.

"What?" He demanded irritably. He liked silence, and her voice thoroughly annoyed him by no means. You could probably say Hibari had limited interaction with girls in his life; he probably wasn't used to high-pitched, nasally voices like hers speaking rabid-squirrel, shrilly, squeaky and improperly-pronounced Japanese dialect along with her horrible, dodgy accent. Urgh.

She took a deep breath. "… Were you looking for me because I was gone for a long time and you were starting to get worried even though I just came to your house about a day ago and what happened in the onsen was really embarrassing for the both of us and then I tried to get you to play a game of Russian Roulette but you won and I got angry that you didn't die and shot a hole in your ceiling which should be patched up by now?"

He didn't really hear what she said, just the first few words – because of her rabid-squirrel, shrilly, squeaky and improperly-pronounced Japanese dialect along with the horrible, dodgy accent. "Yes, so what?"

Maybe he should teach her some Japanese-speaking lessons. It'll probably lessen the painful ringing in his ears which she inflicted.

"N-Nothing…" She grunted out at him.

There was more silence, and he glanced at her from the corners of his eyes. She was staring rather morosely at ground, at her open-toed sandals where her big toe stuck out – yeah, her feet were pretty big.

"Hibari?" She began again.

"What now?"

"… Thanks."


	4. Goodfellas

This story contains minor spoilers regarding the Future Arc. I've not read up to that part yet, but it sure sounds complicated…

**Chapter 04**

_For Those Who Love Sushi, _

_Yamamoto and Co. Salute You_

Our story actually begins.

The next day; since Hibari had a whole, free day in front of him, he had a few choices of what to do for the rest of the day; but he decided that he didn't want to stay in the house for too long – and no, he was most definitely _**NOT**_ going to take his cousin to a happy-googoo-family-fun-day trip to Disneyland in Tokyo and ride in the magical teacups of Pretty lights and tinkly music, or go riding through a pink, horse-drawn carriage in Cinderella's Castle of glass slippers and talking mice that made clothes - she hinted the Disneyland trip to him last night, before being deposited back into her room unconscious and bleeding, courtesy of Hibari obviously.

He had breakfast as usual, but before he inputted the password on the keypad, he realised that there was some weird camouflaging wire taped to the fridge door.

"What's this?" He said; whenever Hibari says that, he wasn't actually wondering whatever had caught his attention was. It was sort of like, a rhetorical question or something he asked just for the heck of it. But you guys already know that, sooo…

He noticed that this strange wire which he had never seen before had electrical surges insulating it; hmm, looks like some sort of complicated transmitting device – 'Property of Kiriyuu' it said – oh, so it belonged to 'Hicousin'. He pulled the wire off the fridge, slipped on a rubber glove and walked over to the sink, before rushing the wire under the tap water.

Then out in the garden, just behind the kitchen, came an estranged yelp of distress as soon as the hitman received a totally and unpredicted electric shock from her own device. She dropped her password-analysing device, which had exploded in a mushroom cloud, and which had also been hooked to the wire earlier on, and flopped on top of the grass, sizzling like a piece of burger on a barbecue grill.

He let go of the wire, and turned the doorknob of the kitchen – which was also rigged with a wire to give Hibari Kyouya a nasty and deadly electric shock– but luckily enough for him, since he was wearing a rubber glove – the electricity didn't conduct, and Hibari left without breaking a sweat. He did notice the rigged wire though, and promptly ripped it in half. He left the kitchen and entered the yard, where his cousin lay, smoking all over the place.

She coughed, and sat back up, smoothing down her newly-acquired afro-hairstyle. "You!" She yelled at him furiously. "Why won't you let me eat something? I've had nothing to eat since I got here! And you took away my fish, too! Eto, as much as I'd love to drop a few pounds or so, this is NOT the way of losing weight which I had in mind!"

"Not my problem." He said.

Wow, so Hibari was pretty selfish regarding food. What kind of goodies did he have in the wretched kitchen appliance anyway? This made her even more curious – yeah, about a fridge – the only thing she'd been curious about of a fridge was how the little light went on and off whenever you opened the door. She used to actually think gnomes lived there and helped you when you were starving in the middle of the night and wanted some cake or something.

She got up, after kicking her broken device to the side, and stomped back inside the house. She went back into her room and searched around for the fishing rod – which was gone – she marched back out.

"Have you seen my – "

The hitman stopped when she saw Hibari setting his school shirt over the rod, using it as a laundry line.

"W-Why you - !!"

She paused, her knuckles turning white from clenching them so hard – and turned back round. Without another word, the hitman stormed out of the house in general, and stopped shortly in the middle of the road. She didn't think she could take anymore of this – okay, maybe Hibari wasn't exactly an evil person, and she actually no longer wanted to kill him anymore – but still… The hitman wiped at a few new tears that had formed in her eyes. She was so hungry that she was crying? Waah… how embarrassing – and stupid, too.

"There's nothing stupid about being hungry!" She yelled out loud with clenched fists to no-one in particular, that a few people walking their dogs by her gave her odd looks.

However, the new silence that followed her agonising statement was promptly disrupted by a shrill shriek that seemed to have come from over the horizon of the street. The hitman stared; and a small dot came into view, then another dot behind it.

The dot belonged to a baby. Really. And what surprised the hitman was that the baby was waving someone's pair of boxers in the air which had permanent marker scribbled over it. Behind the baby, was a boy who had been chasing him; he had light brown hair that resembled _Dragonball Z_'s super-saiyan mode. He looked awfully desperate, and sweaty, too.

Following the boy, was a distressed cry from another sweaty-looking guy: "Juudaime! Wait for me!"

The boxers were looped over a _gun_. As the hitman watched on, the features of the baby looked even more familiar to her, and her jaw dropped.

"_**R-REBORN-SAMA?!**_"

This made the trio stop altogether in their tracks; the super-saiyan boy fell over the baby, and the silver-haired guy who was following suit also tripped over the super-saiyan, and they clumped in a heap in a nearby bush, their legs sticking out.

The infant stopped waving the boxers, and perked up at her. "Ciaossu."

Immediately, the hitman got down on her knees with her hands in front of her; the super-saiyan and the silver guy managed to struggle out of the bush with leaves in their hair, and were now watching this scene with their mouths agape.

"Reborn – you know this girl?" Super-saiyan boy gawked, snatching (his) boxers from the baby once realising his opportunity.

The girl looked back up. "Eto… I don't think Reborn-sama has ever seen me before, but I am one of you!" She spilled out quickly.

Super-saiyan and Silver's jaw's further dropped. "WHA - ?"

"Reborn-sama is my idol!" She squawked at the baby. "It's my lifelong dream to meet Reborn-sama!"

"I'm flattered."

Super-saiyan looked weird with his expression – it sort of made him look like one of those creepy sculptures with their eyes bulging and mouth wide open, dating back to the Incan age or something. "Reborn!?"

Reborn turned to the two boys. "It seems she is one of us. We should go somewhere to discuss."

Silver didn't look too pleased, eyeing the ginger girl up and down, then taking a deep drag from his cigarette. "Who the hell is this girl anyway? Why did Reborn-san – "

"Gokudera, it's okay." Reborn said. "We'll go to Yamamoto's restaurant. Come on, Tsuna."

…………

Hmm, more weird happenings going on in Namimori which Hibari didn't know about; what he did know, was that he saw Hicousin from the window stalking off with Tsuna and his cronies, plus the baby which he was oh-so interested in, just because out of Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto, the baby managed to stop his attack that time. Or something like that anyway.

Oh well, once Hicousin came back from whatever she had been doing, he'd interrogate her.

At Yamamoto's father's sushi restaurant, they took a four seater at the wall, and the hitman immediately began to introduce herself.

"I'm from the _**Giglio Nero **_famiglia. I've looked up to Reborn-sama ever since I was small; I'm so glad that I finally managed to meet you, but why are you in Namimori?" She said, meeting the eyes of Super-saiyan and Silver. Silver didn't look really friendly, to be honest. If the angry-look he bore into her head and that profound scowl was any indicator.

"The Giglio Nero… interesting." Reborn said, as Leon twittered atop his hat.

"You know them, Reborn?" Super-saiyan asked.

"Not in person. The Vongola and the Giglio Nero are not that close, though they share as much history as the Vongola does. Don't worry, we're not allies, nor are we enemies. We are neutral." Reborn continued, "In answer to your question, I'm here to train the next boss of the Vongola. Sawada Tsunayoshi. What you saw this morning was my running exercise for Tsuna."

Super-saiyan cringed; he was still holding the boxers – which were obviously his.

"My student needs something to motivate him often. So I took his boxers, wrote his name on them and ran around town with them."

"Reborn! Too much detail!" Super-saiyan hissed.

The baby continued. "And this will motivate you further, Tsuna." This earned a giggle from the girl, and caused Super-saiyan's face to redden even more.

_Waah, how embarrassing_, he thought. Silver coughed suddenly.

"Oh, and this is his right-hand man, Gokudera Hayato."

Silver grunted at her.

"Nice to meet you… uh…?" Tsuna, aka Super-saiyan said.

The girl smiled at them. "I'm Ottuso Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole. But people call me Kiriyuu for short."

Gokudera, the Silver, choked on his un-lit cigarette (Yamamoto had a strict no-smoking policy). "Was that a joke? What a stupid, long and irrelevant name. Which one's your actual first name?"

"Are you mocking my Italian heritage?" She growled at him sourly.

"_Ottuso_ in Italian means – " Gokudera began, but he was interrupted by Reborn, who just shook his head.

"Kiriyuu-san, it's okay, Gokudera's from Italy, too." Tsuna said, trying to stop conflict that was bound to arise between the two.

"Oh, really?" Kiriyuu said, not looking too happy at all.

"Kiriyuu-san, your parents were Japanese?" Tsuna asked; so far, Kiriyuu didn't seem like a really nasty person.

"Eto… My father was. My mother is Italian; they split up a long time ago. I lived in Genoa with my carer instead. I just arrived in Namimori several days ago." She replied, smiling at Tsuna. "It sure is nice here, ehehe."

"So why are you in Japan anyway?"

"Oh, I've bee – "

Before Kiriyuu could continue with her reply, Yamamoto's cheerful voice entered the atmosphere, and everyone looked up at him, dressed in his 'Piyo Piyo' apron, as he leant over their seat, carrying their tray of ordered sushi. "Tsuna! Hayato! Reborn's here too? I haven't seen you guys for such a long time! So what stirred the 'We Heart U, Sushi' club meeting again? How come I'm not invited? Ahaha…"

At the sight of the multi-coloured treats and seaweed-coated riceballs, Kiriyuu sucked in her drool and began to pick them into her mouth, one by one. She was starving; and thankfully, this was on Tsuna's tab, too! Free food! What could be better than free food?

"Yamamoto-kun!" Tsuna said, smiling at him pleasantly as the guy put down the tray in front of them. "Oh, this is Kiriyuu-san. She just came here, from Italy."

Kiriyuu stopped snacking on the sushi like a pig and looked up, wiping her face clear of rice.

"Another one from Italy, eh? Just like Hayato - Well, it's nice to meet you." As Kiriyuu stared up at him; he took her tiny hand and shook it. She just kept staring at him. "I'm Yamamoto Takeshi."

She croaked. "Ottuso Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole." _Not as hot-hot hotties hottiest as Hibari, but reasonable hot-hot, I suppose._

"Eh?"

Tsuna whispered into Yamamoto's ear. "That's her full name."

"I see. Ahaha, what a long name, Kiriyuu-san!" He exclaimed cheerfully, patting her back. Gokudera, Tsuna and Reborn looked amused at her response to him.

Kiriyuu just went red all of a sudden and looked at her cold, clammy hands. "Y-Yeah…" She blurted out, smiling awkwardly at him. "Um… That… club you mentioned…"

"Oh… That was a joke."

Wow, this was probably the first time someone didn't get Yamamoto's joke – or understand his attempts to lighten up the atmosphere. He looked blank at her.

"Eto… I… would've liked to join. I like sushi."

"KYAHAHA!" Came Gokudera's pristine, obnoxious snigger.

Yamamoto just chuckled instead. "You're funny! I like your personality, Kiriyuu-san! Hey… You look a bit tense. Why don't you… relax?" Yamamoto said, after noticing her clenched fists over the napkins and her rigid back against the straight, vertical board of the seat.

She blinked at him. "Relax?"

"Yeah, like… loosen up your shoulders a bit."

"Eto… But I am relaxed."

"You sure? Is something making you all stressed and anxious?"

Tsuna just shook his head inwardly. Who knew Yamamoto knew some aspects of psychology? Or maybe it was called genuine concern, which Kiriyuu had not been exposed to since her arrival here.

"Well, there is something, eto…" She thought back to Hibari, the evil weasel boy. He was just… pure… Evil!

"So… let go of all those thoughts, and… relax."

"Oh. O-Okie." The girl slumped a little.

"A bit more."

She went further down.

"Just a bit more." He said. Kiriyuu flopped against the seat like a limp fish. He grinned at her. "That's better. Hey, will you be attending Namimori Junior High then?" Yamamoto asked, his hands on his hips – wait, guys don't have hips. EH?

Everyone looked from Yamamoto, to her. "Good question, Takeshi…"

She shrugged in response and popped a pepper maki in her mouth. "I'm not too sure. Hibari will be deciding that, I think."

Silence.

"H-Hibari?" Tsuna croaked out. "Y-You know… Hibari? Hibari Kyouya?"

She realised her mistake and tried to cover it up. "Well, um, eto… sort of - ?"

"Takeshi! Table order for number 8 is ready!"

Yamamoto turned back to the old guy behind the counter, who waving a spatula at him. "Oops, I gotta go. Talk to you later, ne, Kiriyuu-san? See the rest of you at school, okay?"

She nodded dumbly at him, and the others waved him off, too. Yamamoto dwindled back towards his father, helping serve the customers. Tsuna and Gokudera focused back to Kiriyuu. "… How do _**you**_ guys know Hibari?" She asked.

"Well, he's in our school. Hibari-san's a prefect, head of the Disciplinary Committee. We've come across him on several occasions." Tsuna replied. Suddenly, Reborn elbowed him sharply. "Oow - ! Reborn? Why'd y – "

"And how do you know Hibari, Kiriyuu?" Reborn asked.

Kiriyuu began to sweat. "Um. I'm his cousin."

"HIS **WHAT?!**"

She looked uncomfortable, and squirmed on her spot as Gokudera and Tsuna scrutinised her thoroughly - medium length ginger hair, no slanted (green) eyes, and not-so-pale-as-Hibari face. So… she bore no resemblance to the guy?! But if she was part of the mafia, did that mean that Hibari was secretly part of the mafia, too??

"That's not the truth."

"Reborn?!" Tsuna and Gokudera both exclaimed in unison.

Kiriyuu sweated even more under Reborn's stern gaze. "R-Reborn-sama… Y-Yes it is. Eto… It's the honest truth of all truth! I – "

"Kiriyuu, don't worry, you can trust us. Please elaborate."

Her lip trembled, and her eyes darted from Gokudera, to Tsuna, then to Reborn, and back to Gokudera, Tsuna, and Reborn. They were all staring her down – talk about pressure - then she squeezed her eyes shut and belted it out. "Oh, okay! You got me! I'm not really his cousin! I'm just posing as his cousin from Italy so I can get close to him and kill him!"

"WHA - ?!"

"Can you please stop that? Your overrated reactions are really annoying me now." Kiriyuu said, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning at them deeply. "But it's true," she sobbed heavily, "He won't die for some strange reason, eto! I've tried so many tactics! He's been driving me crazy! I've tried poisoning him, I've dreamed of knifing him but he keeps all the knives in his room, I even tried to shoot him, and I tried to electrocute him this morning!! But Hibari Kyouya won't just, like totally, like, _**DIE**_!!"

At the end of that sentence, Kiriyuu was biting at the end of the napkin, with veins popping all over her face and looking like a female-version of the Incredible Hulk.

Yamamoto's restaurant went deathly quiet as all heads turned to the four seater table in the corner. Tsuna tried to hide by going under the table, but Reborn pulled him back up. "I see. Good luck with that."

"… _Thank you!_" Kiriyuu wailed, grabbing onto Reborn's tiny hands with sparkly eyes of adoration and gratefulness. Sparkle sparkle.

"Reborn? You're – You're not going to - ?" Tsuna squawked helplessly.

"Going to what?"

"Stop her, I mean – "

"Tsuna, if we interfere with the Giglio Nero's family's plans, there'll be in trouble."

"B-But…"

"Juudaime, just let it go." Gokudera then whispered into his ear. "She's no match for that guy anyway."

"I guess that's true…?" Tsuna said, as Kiriyuu got up from her seat.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Reborn-sama, Tsuna-san, Goku-san. See you sometime, okie?" She waved them off, waved at Yamamoto in progress, as she left the restaurant, still waving to them outside the restaurant.

Tsuna was smiling awkwardly and waving, while Gokudera just rolled his eyes at her, Reborn stopped waving to Kiriyuu. Tsuna still smiling and waving just to be friendly, until she rounded the corner and disappeared from their sight. He then dropped it immediately.

"She's doomed."

………….

I didn't know if it was Girionello or Gioglionello so I just stuck with what I found from Wikipedia. And yes, Giglio Nero was one of the families along with the Gesso (which Byakuran leads) that made up the Millefiore – that means Kiriyuu could be an **antagonist**. TT.TT


	5. Bishounens are the Best

**Chapter 05**

_Bishounens are the Best_

The hitman woke up from her idyllic, supposedly undisturbed dream where she was throwing darts at Hibari who was tied to a tree in the garden for some unknown and strange reason, to find a tall, lumbering figure towering over her bed, and almost had a serious case of cardiac arrest.

"AAARGHHH!" She screamed, gathering up her pillow, ready to attack relentlessly at this forbidding intruder.

"Stop screaming." A familiar voice spoke, as the lightbulb above them switched on, illuminating the walls of her cramped room. It was just Hibari, dressed in his school uniform; he let go of the lightbulb string beside him, and she calmed down a bit as her heart stopped beating like mad. Man, this guy really is scary without even trying.

"Eto… What is it?" She asked as she got up, picking up her Mickey Mouse clock in progress and looking at the hands on the face; it was just a few minutes past 7am – and still this dark outside? Geez-oh.

He remembered the reason for barging into her room and waking her up from her giggling sleeping state and fished out something from his side, then tossed the plastic-wrapped, light-weighted bundle of clothes into her arms and she blinked dumbly at it. "That's your uniform. We're leaving in fifteen minutes."

"But it's only 7 o'clock…school starts in like, about an hour or something, right?"

He glared at her.

She made a funny squeaking, whimpering noise, looking away from him and immediately ripping open the bundle and taking out her new skirt and shirt, and Hibari left her room.

………..

Why did Hibari go to school so early? No-one was even there! Either he was a school swot, or he just liked being early. She went with the first option. For her, she hated school. The school was very large and looked entirely different than hers back in Italy. For once, they had ice-white walls covered in notices, things students did in classes like artwork pieces, and pictures of trips which the school organises on a regular basis. Once they entered the Main Hall, the hitman was ordered to swap her new outdoor shoes with indoor shoes. She complied anyway even though she wondered what the point in doing so was, as Hibari shoved them without another thought into the locker, locked it, and gave her the key.

"We're sharing a locker because there aren't any more. This is a copy of the key. Don't lose this, or eat it, or do anything stupid with it."

She glared at him through half-lidded eyes, at the same time, her face went bright red once she snatched the key off him, and she sighed, as Hibari then opened the School Office door and accessed onto the permanent records of every student in the school.

"This is your record." He told her; unfortunately, her file was missing a photo because of her sudden appearance in Namimori. "You'll have to provide your own photo. I've put you down as Transfer Student in Namimori. Your class will be 1-A, and you might find it obligatory to join an extracurricular school activity."

"Like what?" She asked, her hands tightening over the straps of her teddy-bear rucksack. You know, for a hitman, she acted like a lot less younger than her actual age. "Eto, what's yours?"

"I'm the Head of the Disciplinary Committee."

"… Right. So you're a Prefect? Can I join?" She asked, looking more enthusiastic.

"No."

"And why not?"

"Because you're a girl."

"Eto… That's gender discrimination!"

"There are other groups for you to join. Like dancing, gymnastics, home economics, and other stuff girls like. Besides, the Disciplinary Committee is full; its members are all hand-picked by me."

She stared at him strangely; so Hibari was sexist, after all!

………..

Kiriyuu stormed towards the classroom, but after seeing so many students walking leisurely and relaxingly to their classrooms, she looked around, and sighed.

"Yama-san was right. I'm too tense… always on the alert. But this is just a school… no need to get edgy or up front. Gotta relax and take it easy…"

She loosened her shoulders again and stopped outside her classroom, where the teacher inside beckoned her to come in from the window.

"Class, we have a new transfer student today, Ottuso Kiriyuu. Like Gokudera-kun who joined us not so long ago, she studied overseas in Italy too, and is only here for a short while, she is here to experience how a Japanese school works."

The class stared at the hitman; who just wiggled her arm at them as a sort of greeting. Meanwhile, Tsuna and Gokudera both choked on their own spit.

"She's in our class?" Tsuna groaned, glancing at Sasagawa Kyoko who was watching Kiriyuu at the front with inquisitiveness.

**Fact: **At least one in every ten seconds of Sawada Tsunayoshi's school day is spent ogling at the oblivious Kyoko.

"Too much coincidence here, Juudaime." Gokudera grunted out. "She doesn't look fourteen years old at all. More like ten, or eight, maybe seven."

**Fact:** At least one in every ten seconds of Gokudera Hayato's school day is spent wondering about the possibilities of becoming rich and famous if he became a popstar (then again, those thoughts were left to be desired when Gokudera had no will to live anymore, which wouldn't be anytime soon).

"What's wrong with you two? It's great that Kiriyuu's in our class." Yamamoto said cheerfully, once Kiriyuu spotted the trio at the back and waved insanely at them.

**Fact:** At least one in every ten seconds of Yamamoto's Takeshi schoolday is spent philosophising about the physics of baseball.

"Eto, nice to meet you all!" The ginger-haired girl then said, in a cheerful tone, her dark, outlined-panda eyes curling upwards; lack of sleep, no doubt. "You can call me Kiriyuu."

She then glanced at Tsuna's direction, who irked in his seat, shrinking back under her gaze. She held up her right hand, made a 'pistol' and 'shot' him. He tried to dodge; it didn't work.

The teacher didn't seem to notice. "Okay then, Kiriyuu-san, please take a seat near the front. Since your Japanese is not so good, you can learn more this way during your time at a Japanese school."

"Sure!" She beamed, her uncanny cheeriness stood out in this aura of the loathsome, dreadful Monday morning-feeling after a five day public holiday could rival Yamamoto.

………….

Kiriyuu had studied some Japanese dialect before she arrived at Namimori, and tried out some talking 'habits' just so she could fit in better with her new peers. During interval, a few girls approached Kiriyuu, including Kyoko.

"Hey, do you know Hibari-san? Someone said they saw you walking with him to school this morning."

Kiriyuu did not know how to react as she had never really been surrounded by a group before – what she also was not used to, was all the attention focused on her, but she suddenly remembered her false relation with him, and just shrugged in response, calmly, trying to look 'cool'. "Eto… I'm his cousin."

The girls all gave out loud gasps, making every boy in the classroom turn heads to Kiriyuu's crowded seats. The boys just sighed and rolled their eyes.

"No way! Tell us more, Kiriyuu-san!" Some of them gushed at her.

Eh? Kiriyuu blinked sheepishly, as the girls poured into empty seats, all watching her enticingly; surprisingly, even Kyoko sat down, seemingly to know more about Kiriyuu and her ties with Hibari. Wow, Kiriyuu guessed Hibari was quite the interesting person to girls, ne? But what could she actually say about Hibari? She didn't really know him that well.

"What's he like? Is he friendly at all?"

"Did I ever tell you how much I love your teddy-bear bag?"

"Anyway – Hibari scares me. He scares most people."

"He's the most terrifying boy in our school. I wonder if he gets any chocolates on Valentine's Day."

"I think he does, he is quite cute, though."

"Well, you can dibs on him, I've got my eyes out for Hayato-kun." The girl took out a sneaked picture of the silver-haired boy and blew it a kiss; Kiriyuu just watched on with wide-eyed amazement. Gokudera had fans?

"Ewww, him? Why him? He hangs around with No-Good Tsuna."

"Well, he's better than your Yamamoto – the Baseball Baka."

"How dare you!"

Kiriyuu cleared her throat, trying to control the large, insatiable amount of hubbub that had begun by directing the conversation back to Hibari. "Eto, Hibari's actually pretty okay if you live with him – "

"You're living with him too! I don't even know if that's heaven **or** hell!"

"Well, it's a bit of both, eto." Suddenly, Kiriyuu went a bit red at her own statement. "I-I mean… Hibari's not that bad." _Yeah, as if I can really tell them that Hibari starves me to death each day!_

"Wow! That's pretty cool. Hey, Kiriyuu, if you don't mind us asking, but could you take a few pictures – just to show us what Hibari does at home?"

"Eh? Eto, isn't that a violation of people's privacy?? And-And… I don't have a camera…"

"No, of course not! Don't worry! Kyoko-chan will give you a camera!"

Suddenly, the short-haired girl perked up at the mention of her name. "W-Wha? But…"

**Fact:** At least one in every ten seconds of Sasagawa Kyoko's schoolday is spent thinking about the best way to fully cook a chicken in less an hour.

"Ne, Kyoko-chan, it's just your camera – and those pictures you took during your summer holiday were great!"

"Well, um… okay?"

In response; Kyoko just flashed Kiriyuu a polite smile, and Kiriyuu smiled back at her.

…………

During lunchtime, Kyoko invited Kiriyuu over to her house which was just a short distance from Namimori High. Despite having absolutely and seemingly NO interest in Hibari Kyouya whatsoever, Kyoko allowed Kiriyuu to go into her room, and handed Kiriyuu the camera which had been residing beside a picture frame with a picture – of her and Tsuna – it seemed they were at some kind of fishing village behind a mountain.

"… Eh? Kyoko-chan knows Tsuna-san too?" Kiriyuu asked, as she inspected the picture closer.

She nodded, picking up the picture and smiling at it. "I actually didn't use to talk to him, but Tsuna-kun's a pretty amazing guy. He was at our school trip last month, and I suggested we should take a picture together. He was really enthusiastic about it. It's pretty good, isn't it?" She giggled.

"Wow. I didn't realise… I mean… Kyoko-chan – what are all these books? You study so much!"

Kyoko laughed, and took out of the books, showing her a colourful cover. "Kiriyuu-chan, this is a manga book!"

"Hurnh?"

The other girl blinked at Kiriyuu once the blank look settled in on her face. "A manga book – you've never heard of them before?"

Embarrassedly, Kiriyuu shook her head, scuffling at her shoes. "No… I, um, I haven't."

"Would you like to borrow one then?"

"… R-Really? Waah, you're so generous, Kyoko-chan. First, your camera, and now your… eh… mangy book?" Kiriyuu gushed as she clutched the camera and the book to herself securely.

Kyoko just giggled. "No problem. By the way, that's a shoujo book – usually read by girls. There are many different type of manga books, like shounen, which are for boys."

Kiriyuu just raised an eyebrow as she put the camera and the book carefully into her teddy-bear bag. "Eto, more discrimination… even with books?"

Kyoko just nodded unsurely. "Anyway, we should get back to school, Kiriyuu-chan, the bell's about to ring."

……………

Kiriyuu actually hated school; well, she hated school in general, no matter what country she was in. She was also a full-time slacker and despised homework; she thought it was completely boring and just out there to give students a hard time, and she wondered why Hibari seemed to enjoy homework so much. He really was strange. Also, she had heard from some sources that he loved this school. This also mortified Kiriyuu so much that she believed she and Hibari would NEVER EVER GET ALONG. Kiriyuu had so much time for stupid thoughts because she wasn't paying attention as usual, and when the teacher handed out textbooks; she opened the textbook, and secretly popped in Kyoko's manga book there too, reading it, while looking as if she was also studying the textbook.

She was so absorbed in this 'mangy shojo' book that she didn't realise the bell had rung and everyone was pouring out of the classroom, unlike this girl who was someone who actually hated school; until Kyoko put a hand on her shoulder.

"Kiriyuu-chan? Are you okay?"

For a moment, she stared up at Kyoko stupidly, then at the book, and opened her mouth, but then closed it again. She looked honestly flabbergasted.

"Y-Yes, I'm okay… but… Kyoko-chan, this mangy book… My Japanese isn't so good so I couldn't recognise all the words, but… I love it! It's so… so… cool, so wonderful… and the story is simply fascinating and… and the characters…. The story… I mean, she likes him but she doesn't know if he likes her? And his assertiveness towards her - It's pure… genius! This is awesome! Yay!"

"Yeah, isn't it great? Bishonens are great." Kyoko said, smiling widely.

"Bishonens?"

"Oh, that's the term used for male characters in manga books."

"Not _hot-hot hotties_ or _hottiest of them all_?"

"Eh?"

"Eto… That's what I call them." Kiriyuu replied back, blinking innocently. This earned a giggle from Kyoko.

"You're quite cute, Kiriyuu-chan."

"I wonder why Hibari can't be like these 'bishonens'."

"Huh?"

"Eep! Never mind…just thinking out loud, as usual… ehehe. Heh." She smiled awkwardly at the other girl.

Yup, Kiriyuu was experiencing new found inspiration from this book. She closed the book and huggled it to herself gleefully, then put her pencil-case and jotter into her bag and began packing up the rest.

"I'm glad you like it, Kiriyuu-chan. But school has finished -- I'll walk home with you if you like."

"Actually, Kyoko-chan, I still have something to do… maybe tomorrow?"

"Sure, see you tomorrow, Kiriyuu-chan!" Kyoko waved cheerfully at her, then departed out of the classroom.

Kiriyuu then got out of her seat, put on her rucksack, and then picked up the manga book. She thought about it very closely; the two characters in this book were simply a boy and a girl about her age, but older – and they had a strange relationship, but the boy would always look out for this girl, and even if he didn't show it, there would be always some strange, random occurrence that makes their bond grow even stronger.

She continued reading the next chapter as she left the school ground; completely forgetting to swap her shoes with her outdoor ones. She stepped out, and then –

Kiriyuu went flying to the ground.

She gathered up dirt and rock in her hands as she looked up, at the book that had flown out of her hands and onto the ground a few feet from her. "Eh? I fell?" Her knees hurt; obviously scrapped and bleeding.

Above her, she heard raucous, hysterical laughing that matched a crazed hyena – like the ones from _The Lion King_. "Did ya see that?" An obnoxious male voice laughed, as others joined him. "Aww, look at the poor wittle girl and her wittle manga book."

Kiriyuu was suddenly surrounded by a group of big, scary-looking boys. Much more scary than Hibari, she had to admit. Kyoko had warned her of these people; they were the seniors of the student, out to harass any junior student that came across their path – and this time it had to be her who had walked past them with her nose stuck in a book out of the front door. Uh-oh…

Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted up from the ground by her rucksack. "Look at her bag!" They jeered, and they ripped off her teddy-bag from her back, and then began tugging at the teddy's head.

"Stop that!" She yelled, a bit feebly, mind you. They pulled off teddy's head and then threw the remains of her bag back at her; Kiriyuu stared at the bag in shock and horror, then back up. They had picked up Kyoko's book from the floor. "… Give me that back." She said weakly as one of the boys picked up Kyoko's manga book. She was thoroughly intimidated by these big goons.

"You mean this?" A smirk formed on his face, and then, Kyoko's book was thrown back onto the ground, and a muddy, black boot followed, grinding the pages into dust.

"_Argh!_ No!" Kiriyuu screamed, tears starting to well up into her eyes. "Nooo!"

More laughter followed, and Kiriyuu began to cry as the poor book began to rip under the pressure of the shoe. So many thoughts raced through her head, the first being revolving around the fact that it was KYOKO'S BOOK, the second was that she would not know what happened in the next chapter, and the third was that it was KYOKO'S GODDAMN BOOK. Isn't there anyone here to save this unfortunate, innocent book from such inhumane carnage?! Kiriyuu couldn't bear to watch, until -

"What's this? Mingling?"

The book was spared from another stomp, as the boys looked up – to see Hibari standing directly behind Kiriyuu. Where he had come from; no-one knew. How Kiriyuu didn't notice him standing behind her; no-one knew either. Not even Kiriyuu, who had been too busy trying to save the book.

"Oh, it's you, the goddamn prefect who ratted on us last time. I ain't afraid of you!" One of the boys went charging blindly towards Hibari with his clenched fist out.

Hibari didn't do anything to shake off this new attacker, but one eyelid flickered, followed by the flash of silver steel as the charging senior student went crashing to the floor, bleeding from the head. "I hate people who mingle. It makes me really want to _bite them to death_." He said, smearing the blood off his tonfa onto Kiriyuu's shirt, who was just gawking stupidly at him.

A few minutes later, there was a pile of comatose bodies littering around Kiriyuu. Hibari put his tonfas back and glanced at the girl who was still on the ground; not even a 'thank you'? No, Kiriyuu had crawled up to the book, and she picked it up, and then turned back to Hibari eventually with the ripped book in her hands.

"You stood up for me." She hiccupped – and Hibari rolled his eyes once more. Not this again…. "No-one ever stands up for me. Not even my family."

"Yes, yes, whatever."

**Fact:** At least one in every ten seconds of Hibari Kyouya's school day is spent trying to deduce why he had an affinity for birds. But people say you shouldn't dwell on things too much.

"But they still killed it." She wailed at him unhappily.

"It's just a book." He noticed that she was crying. What a stupid girl. Crying over a book? She was too irritatingly sensitive for her own damn good.

Kiriyuu was still bleeding from the knees, but she didn't seem to notice; instead, she wiped at her eyes and snivelled. "Hibari… They killed Kyoko-chan's book."

"… Are you coming home or not?"

"Eto… But it's dead. Kyoko's book is dead."

"Are you an idiot?"

She wailed again, much louder on volume this time. Hibari irked, forgetting how high and shrill a girl's voice could go – especially Kiriyuu; and he turned round, beginning to exit the school. So this is what waiting for her after school got him… an unnecessary brawl with thugs and a crying, soap-opera episode over a damaged book.

"Hibari, wait up." Kiriyuu called after him, getting back up – but then she winced, and flopped back down on the ground painfully. "Hibari!!"

He stopped eventually. "What's wrong with you now?"

"I'm hurt!" She pointed out to him angrily, gesturing to her bloody, peeling knees.

"It's just a scratch. Stop whining, or I'll hit you."

"Can you carry me?"

He hit her over the head anyway with his clenched fist. "No."

"Ow - Then what do I do?" Kiriyuu had much bigger things to worry about than a red mountain that had sprouted on her head thanks to Hibari.

"Stay here and rot for the rest of the night." He replied, with that haughty smile of his. Although there was nothing funny or nice about what he said to her.

"Hibari! I… I'm… I'm begging you, okay?!" She looked from left to right, then back to him. "You like begging, right? You like it when people beg? Fine, I'll beg you to carry me back home. Pleassseeeee??"

His eyebrow rose up, and his lips curved up into a smirk. "Well, begging does amuse me."

Kiriyuu sighed inwardly. _What an evil guy…_

Hibari walked up to the poor girl and lifted her up by the arm; she flinched again, as Hibari settled her arm over his shoulder, and they both limped out of the school yard. Despite Kiriyuu never being this close to Hibari before; she realised that Hibari really was… gulp… _beautiful_.

Just like a bishonen from a shojo book – well, in a weird, twisted and dodgy way. But still…

"Hey, Hibari?"

"What?"

"What am I going to do about Kyoko-chan's book?"

"That's got nothing to do with me."

"Eto… I guess I'll have to buy another one…" Kiriyuu turned to Hibari. "Um. I just remembered I don't have any money."

"Get a job then."

"But I'm seeing her tomorrow at school, and I'm 14. I'm not allowed to work…"

"If you plan on skipping school tomorrow, I'll get you expelled for life."

"Nuooo! I… I don't want that – Hey, Hibari? Do you have any money?"

He sighed. "What do you think?"

"Can you let me borrow some money?"

"I'll give you money only when you work for it. There are plenty of chores to do back home. And I could use a domestic servant."

"…. EH?! Hibari!"

Oh dear, Kiriyuu got bullied on her first day of school! Lol (what? I'm even laughing? Oh well...)


	6. Fairytales for the Lonely and Single

**Chapter 06**

_Fairytales for the Single, Lonely and Desperate _

_(And those who believe in Prince Charming)_

As Hibari said; she would have to work for the money just to buy a new copy of Kyoko's destroyed book. Even though Kyoko was sure that she would realise that Kiriyuu would give her a brand new book instead – at least she tried to compensate, right?

During the limping journey back home; Kiriyuu asked Hibari to drop her off at the local bookstore – literally – he let go of her and she went crashing to the ground. Kiriyuu gathered herself back up quickly; too busy to get revenge on Hibari, she hobbled into the store, with Hibari following for some reason, and she scoured the shelves hungrily like a dog sniffing out a bone for Kyoko's manga title.

However, she ended up being distracted by a book that stuck out in her face like gold while Hibari sauntered off somewhere (to her advantage). She cocked her head in curiosity, then looked around suspiciously, and picked it up. She opened the first page.

"… Fairytales for the Single, Lonely and Desperate… and those who believe in Prince Charming? Interesting..." She murmured to herself. "Page 450. Story 113. The Skylark and the Idiot Person…. That's a lot of fairytales for the single, lonely and desperate."

Looking around cautiously once more, she hurriedly dug her nose into the book.

"A long time ago, there lived an immortal Skylark who lived a solitary life. In order to put up with his loneliness, he flew around the world, discovering new things by himself. One day, he found a village, and an Idiot Person; a poor village girl, who was constantly being ridiculed and taken advantage of by the villagers. The Skylark decided to stay in the village and find out more. However, the Skylark was deemed as a pest to the villagers, and they use the Idiot Person to get rid of him for them."

_That's a shame. The skylark didn't do anything wrong._

"However, using his sharp intellect and wit, he tricks the Idiot Person into letting him stay. When the villagers found out that the Idiot Person had actually become friends with the skylark, they exile her. The skylark also did not realise that the Idiot Person was also cursed by the village. Anyone who left would die within days, seeing as they would be unable to survive by themselves out of the village..."

_What evil villagers…_

"Reasoning with the God who looked after the village, the Skylark sacrifices his wings to descend upon Earth as a mortal, human man. He saves the Idiot Village Girl and marries her, teaching her what he had learned about the harsh world."

_Well, at least it was a happy ending._

"What are you reading?"

"GAH!" Kiriyuu screamed, the book almost falling out of her hands. "H-Hibari?!"

Hibari received an eyeful of the title of the book. "Fairytales… for the Single, Lonely and Desperate… and those who believe in Prince Charming. At first, I thought it was _Aesop's Fables_, but this is not so surprising of you, since the book is suited for 5 year old little girls."

Her face went bright red, and then she quickly stuffed the book back where she got it from and scouted for what she was actually looking for.

"Hana Yori Banjo… Hana Yori Banjo… Hana Yori Banjo… ahh, there it is! Only one copy of the first volume left… eek! I better get it quick – but… aiya… not fair…" She mumbled to herself, before giving a sideways glare to Hibari who was waiting impatiently outside now with a stopwatch timing how much she had left to leave the store before ditching her there, and limping back out of the store.

"They only have **one copy left**. I have to make sure that I get it!" She told him, who couldn't care less as he supported her by the arm back home.

………

Even though she had a mountain of homework to do for the next day; Kiriyuu abandoned her school uniform, put on a pair of comfy jogging bottoms, a tank top, and stuffed two plasters over her knees, then emerged back into the lounge, where Hibari would have 'chores' waiting for her.

"And this will get me enough money for Kyoko's book?"

"That's right." He said, showing her the mop and bucket, the wet cloth and bucket, the clothes and bucket, and the dishes and bucket. "There, mop up all the floors of the house including the porch, then go round all the shelves and cabinets with the cloth, then do the laundry and hang them outside with pegs, which should be hanging by the backdoor, and then wash the dishes and polish them before setting them back in the cupboards in _alphabetical _order. Oh, and _no breaks_."

"Okay!" She said, clenching her fists. "Ikuzo!!" Though it sounded like 'I kick yo' (if he deepened that theory then he might've thought that Kiriyuu was saying that she was going to 'kick' him) and then, Kiriyuu paused, and blinked at Hibari. "Eto… How do I put back spoons and plates in alphabetical order?"

"You can work that out for yourself."

_He makes no sense at all!_

"Hey, how do I know when you're making dinner?" She asked bluntly.

Hibari took out a tonfa – and she screamed bloody murder and her arms flung over her head – when she realised that he didn't hit her, she perked back up in confusion. "Huh? You didn't hit me?"

"No, I'm saving that for later."

"…Eh…"

He banged his tonfa against the marble countertop, making a loud bell sound. "If you hear this. It means dinner is ready and you will come with your doggie plate and chopsticks."

"Doggie plate?"

He handed her the doggie plate – which was basically a bowl that looked like a dog's bowl. She stared, took it without complaining. "It's quite cute…"

"I'm glad you like it." More sarcasm. "Not get to work." Hibari got on with his own homework, at the same time supervising over Kiriyuu, who was busy starting on the first work task - mopping up the entire floor. Too bad she had speed like a snail. Actually, even snails were faster than her.

"You missed a spot." He said, and then shoved his rubber erasings onto the floor, in front of him.

She frowned, waving the mop dangerously around. "Hey! You did that on purpose!"

"If you waste more time yapping away, you'll lose your chances of finishing all the chores before the store closes."

"Okay, okay, I get it.** Hibari-sama**." She growled at him, before scrubbing furiously at the ground.

The chores did take a long time. Kiriyuu also didn't even know that it was possible for a guy to have so much laundry; only a tiny fraction of the laundry belonged to hers, which she oh-so-carefully laid over the fishing pole. Hibari's clothes were dumped carelessly around the place; she couldn't care less about his stuff. She just knew she had to do all these wretched chores and then she'd be free; walking away with enough cash for the book and a clear, free conscience.

She felt her legs tire, and she promptly sat down for a moment, then turned round – saw Hibari glaring at her, and instantly stood back up and began working again. However, Hibari left the house for some time, and Kiriyuu, actually didn't waste any time taking a break. In fact, she worked even harder at scrubbing the stair banister with her cloth. By the time Kiriyuu had finished, Hibari had also come back home.

She was lying on the sparkling, gleaming floor, breathing heavily. "I'm finished." She moaned at him, trying to get comfortable on the floor.

Hibari raised a cool eyebrow, and then looked out the window; his clothes were wavering dangerously in the wind, threatening to come off. There were a few dust specks on a cabinet, and a broken dish was in the bin. Well, it was still reasonable. He rummaged in his pocket, and took out the money, as promised, and dropped it over her.

Kiriyuu was up in a flash, and quickly scooped the cash into her hand greedily, a crazed expression on her face. Oooh… cold, hard-earned cash …. "Money! Yay!" She kicked off her flip-flops, brushed past Hibari without another word, and ran out of the house, waving the paper bills in the air.

"I HAVE MONEEEEEY!!"

Without wasting any more time, Kiriyuu raced down the street; it was almost closing time for the stores in Namimori! She couldn't let it happen! Not when she worked half-assed for money! She saw the shops over the horizon, and grinned; she was going to make it?! The storeowner was pulling the steel cover over the window of the bookstore! Gasp! Kiriyuu raced as fast as she could towards him, and threw herself at his feet.

"NOOO!" She screamed, and the proprietor stared at her, as she lay there on the ground.

"You okay, little girl?"

"Quick! Hana Yori Banjo Volume 1, onegai oyaji-san! I worked for four hours straight just for the money, eto! Please, I want to buy it!"

The storeowner's face faltered and almost felt sorry for the poor, sweaty-looking girl. "It's not that I won't let you buy it, it's just…"

"What?" She said, her smile fading, rather rapidly, too. "Wh-What do you mean?"

"… I'm sorry, but… Someone already picked up the last copy."

…………

Kiriyuu trudged back home; she shut the sliding door behind her and kicked her shoes to the side and then waddled into the lounge where Hibari was, before falling to the ground and lying there, squeezing her eyes shut. Then she curled into a foetal position on the floor and whined like a dog. Hibari looked up from his new table and glanced over to the girl, who was now lying face-flat on the ground.

"Someone bought it." She said, her voice muffled – even though Hibari did not have the slight interest in why her mood sunk rock-bottom. "It's gone. Kyoko-chan will hate me now – and I also just met her today, too. Eto… It's not fair - !!"

She got back up, rubbing her red eyes and retreated back into her room. Hibari didn't hear a word from her after that, except from when she came out, looking stony-faced and dribbling from the nose and mouth, for the nightly bath. Not even a soothing bath could relieve her of her guilt and misery; Kiriyuu trotted back out of the bathroom in her pyjamas and opened the door to her room.

Then she blinked, once, twice, another time. Then she slapped herself across the face, and glanced back. The book was still there – okay, so she wasn't insane – yet.

"A brand new _Hana Yori Banjo_ Volume 1?!" She squeaked, staring at the book that was lying on her bed.

She was most certainly sure, that the manga had NOT been there previously. Without thinking how it got there, Kiriyuu picked it up, giggling insanely, and flipped the book – it was brand new! (She also resembled the grey thing in _Lord of the Rings_ that always went 'Precious…' over the ring – what was his name? Smeargle? Dunno…) It looked brand new, and smelt brand new! So now she speculated –

"Hibareeee!" She sang cheerfully, as she ran to the lounge. "Eto… Did you get this for me? When did you get it, and… _why_?"

The only sound he actually heard coming from her lips was an annoying 'eeeeeeee' sound ringing through his ears. He looked tiredly up at her from his seat as he dried his hair with the towel, having just come out from the bathroom himself. Why did she have to do that? So irritating… geez…

"Isn't that what you were pining for so much?"

"It is! It is! But what about the money I earned from doing all those chores? If I knew Hibari was going to buy it, then… "

"Keep the money. It's just spare change anyway."

She looked spooked. "Eto… What… did you say?"

"I said you can keep it."

Silence.

"Yaaaaay!" Kiriyuu landed an unpredictable attack on him – she _**hugged**_ him. In fact, it had been so unpredictable that they both toppled to the floor, Kiriyuu still on top of him with her arms around his waist. Wow, Hibari's body was pretty soft… like… putty. Well, not as soft as putty – kinda firm… springy… like springy-putty? Yay! She liked putty! Hurray for putty! Ahem. She actually didn't realise how small she was compared to him. Anyway, putteeeee….

Wow, Hibari was a reasonably snugly person, too :O

"Get off." He said, his tone dangerously calmly, even though his face had the most dullest tinge of red splashed across his cheeks.

"Noe wayz! Hibari really is a nice person! I knew it! Hibari is nice -- I can't be – owww!"

He had grabbed her ear and pried her off him at the same time; her arms were like, octopus arms or something, with suction cups and everything that just wouldn't _let go_. Geez. Although, something made Hibari feel uncomfortable. Eek! He wasn't… uh-oh… dude, what was this? It certainly wasn't funny. Not funny at all. Like some kind of new emotion stirring through him – which was weird, because Hibari although seemingly had three emotions which he associated knowledgably with – and this one did NOT include in his 'three emotion' list -- This one was like… was like… felt like something connected with… flowers and gunk… and pink! What the - ?!

Several minutes later, they then sat opposite each other in an awkward, thick silence filled with tension from Hibari, who was glaring at her warningly as he put away his tonfas; Kiriyuu with a missing tooth and a black eye, a dead arm. Then, Kiriyuu held the book to her tightly. "Thanks, Hibari! Thank you."

Hibari went 'irk' again. Argh. There it was again! That stupid emotion! What the hell was going on?!

………….

Hmm... I hope that wasn't too OOC...


	7. It's Love, Actually

**Chapter 07**

_It's Love, Actually_

Even though Kiriyuu came to school with a bruised eye, scratches on her arm and face, and two missing teeth after what Hibari did to her for hugging him; it was seemingly worth it, as she proudly presented Kyoko's new book the next morning.

"I'm sorry about your old mangy book – I bumped into these evil people after school and they killed Kyoko-chan's mangy book, but I got you a new one!" She said, smiling hopefully at Kyoko. "Eto… Is… Is that okay?"

"Yes, of course. I'm just worried about you, Kiriyuu-chan! Is this what they did to you?!" She shrieked, examining Kiriyuu's bruises and her red scratches.

"Hehe, naw, Hibari did this to me. He hit me for hugging him. How unjustified!" Kiriyuu replied back, rather cheerfully, I might add.

Kyoko pretended she did not hear that. Whatever went through their house; she wasn't quite sure that she wanted to know. Thankfully, without having Kyoko to change the subject, Tsuna, Yamamoto and Gokudera sidled up to them. "Kiriyuu-chan, Kyoko-chan," Tsuna began; he gave a smile to Kyoko, and to Kiriyuu who grinned back at him.

"How's it going, dudes?" She said.

Yamamoto slapped Kiriyuu's back playfully as he took the seat down beside her. "Hey, are you enjoying Namimori so far?"

Gokudera just grunted at her as usual.

Kiriyuu twiddled her fingers together. "Eto… on the first day, these big, evil boys tripped me up – "

"Did they do that to you, Kiriyuu-chan?!" Yamamoto exclaimed in horror, gesturing to her wounds.

"Hehe, naw, I've already told Kyoko-chan this – Hibari did this to me." Kiriyuu replied. "Even if he did save me from those evil boys – "

"Hibari saved you?" Gokudera said; and Kiriyuu perked up at him; she didn't really like Gokudera, because of how rude he had been to her before, but she still nodded anyway.

"Oh, that reminds me, um… Kiriyuu-chan?" Tsuna said, and Kiriyuu averted her gaze from Gokudera to Tsuna. "Reborn wants to talk to you alone. He said he'll be waiting in the rooftops. He should be there."

"Now? Eto… okie then. I'll see you then – during lunch?"

"I brought an extra bento box!" Yamamoto exclaimed – and everyone just smiled at him awkwardly. Well, uh… guess they'll be having lunch together today then?

"Kiriyuu-chan, do you know the way to the rooftops?" Tsuna asked, as he noticed the blank expression on her face.

"Um, no, not really. Ehehe."

"Don't worry, I'll show you." Tsuna thought that Kiriyuu was actually quite an okay person; sure, maybe a bit crazy and airheaded, but not a nasty character. He led her out of the classroom and towards the direction of the rooftop. "Kiriyuu?"

"Yes, Tsuna-chan?"

He cringed a bit, but shook it off anyway. "Are you and Hibari… okay?"

"'Okay'? What do you mean by 'okay'? We're just… I dunno… we aren't best friends, I know." Kiriyuu responded back, looking thoughtful with a finger to her chin – she was thinking pretty hard, actually.

"Does he hit you all the time?"

"Doesn't he hit everyone?"

"Yeah, but I didn't realise that he'd hit girls, too – "

"Eto, it doesn't hurt that much." She replied back with a sheepish grin, scratching at her cheek. "But thanks for your concern, Tsuna-san. Eto, by the way, in my Italian customs, we greet each other with a kiss on the cheek. I forgot to do that the first time we met. So I think I'll do that later."

Tsuna's face went a funny colour.

"I see… well, we're here – " Tsuna opened the door to the rooftops and let Kiriyuu enter first; she went 'wow' as she gazed upon the splendour of the rooftops – there wasn't really anything there – just a picnic table and a fence – after Yamamoto's scene of suicidal (which NO-ONE should be imitating) waaay back earlier on in the schooldays, they put up a fence in case any other student felt like ending their life.

"Ciaossu, Tsuna, Kiriyuu." A familiar voice said, and Kiriyuu and Tsuna looked down to see Reborn, who was standing in front of them.

"Reborn-sama!" Kiriyuu squawked again, and she got on her knees and bowed – over and over again and again.

Tsuna cringed, and lifted her back up. "Reborn, I'll leave you two to talk – "

"It's okay, Tsuna. You can stay. It'll be quick." Reborn cleared his throat. "Kiriyuu, I've been exceptionally concerned about your mission: Your mission to assassinate Hibari."

"U…Uh…?" She squeaked at the infant. "What do you mean, Reborn-sama?"

"Take a look." Reborn twiddled off to the edge of the roof, and Tsuna and Kiriyuu followed suit. Reborn gestured to them to look over the ledge, and so they did.

Hibari was lying down below, on a lowered area of the rooftop, but still part of the rooftop, sleeping. She had never seen Hibari look so vulnerable before; and she was actually surprised that he didn't sleep while clutching a knife with him in case someone attacked him. Tsuna and Kiriyuu blinked unsteadily. Before long, Reborn told them to stop gawking at someone who was sleeping and so they did. Tsuna and Kiriyuu blinked at each other, then looked back at Reborn.

"Um. What's going on?" Kiriyuu asked nervously.

Reborn handed her a long rifle. "This is the Snake Sniper 2000. It's foldable, capable of holding more than 100 bullets in a clip and its firepower and fire-rate exceeds that of a normal Sniper gun. You can have it, Kiriyuu. My treat."

Tsuna's jaw dropped – first, because he had never received a proper gift from Reborn after the first day he met him, and secondly, Reborn gave her a gun.

"You are an expert on Sniper rifles, right?"

Kiriyuu's jaw also dropped as she nodded dumbly, her eyes bulged to the size of plates. While Tsuna gawked in disbelief, Kiriyuu was exalted, overwhelmed with happiness. "OH MY GOSH! I-I've always wanted one… " She sniffed it, and then smiled crazily that Tsuna became scared. "I've always dreamed that it smelt like this, too! T-Thank you, Reborn-sama! I-I dunno what to say…"

"Reborn! You can't give her a gun!" Tsuna protested back desperately. Yeah! What if she went on a mad killing spree? Not good! He gave a warning look to Kiriyuu.

Whatever murderous thoughts she had on her mind immediately dispersed once she realised he was watching her cautiously.

"Tsuna, I'm not done yet." Reborn continued, and he jumped on top of the ledge, facing Hibari. "Kiriyuu, I want you to use that Sniper I gave you, and shoot Hibari. _**Kill**_ him." He hopped off the rooftop ledge, gesturing to Kiriyuu to take up his previous spot. "There you go, Kiriyuu. You can kill Hibari now."

Tsuna squeaked in response. "Kiriyuu! N – "

"Tsuna, it's Kiriyuu's choice. Don't interfere."

"B-But – " He stammered, his eyes darting from the girl, then to the infant, and then down to the prefect who was sleeping on the ground a few levels below them on the school building.

Kiriyuu also had an interesting expression on her face; for once, Tsuna had never seen a girl look so terrified in her whole life. He almost felt sorry for her, as she took the gun from Reborn's tiny hands and clutched it in her own. Her fingers curled tighter around the contraption, and then she swallowed, before going up to Reborn's place, and aimed the gun's nozzle towards the direction of Hibari unwaveringly. Kiriyuu swallowed again as she looked through the viewfinder where the cross lines were parallel to Hibari's head, and Tsuna covered his eyes, unable to watch.

_Goodbye, Hibari…?_

A minute passed, and Kiriyuu's finger trembled around the trigger. Tsuna's mouth was still hanging open. She was really going to do it?! Suddenly, Kiriyuu let out an anguished cry and dropped the gun, stepping back from the spot and flopping down onto the ground in a nervous breakdown. A tiny smile grew on Reborn's face, and Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief.

"I… I can't do it…" She wailed, looking up at them and handing Reborn the sniper back to him. "I can't kill him… _Why?_"

She looked up at Tsuna, who looked relieved, and then she glanced at Reborn.

"Because, you like him."

This time, both Tsuna and Kiriyuu gawped at the infant. "What?!" Kiriyuu's face went a bizarre shade of red as she stood back up. "No I do not!"

"Don't deny it. You hold a strong affection for him."

Kiriyuu shook her head, stomping her feet on the ground. "No – I don't! I don't I don't I don't!" Then she stopped her rant and faced them both angrily. "Just because I hugged him yesterday, and just because I don't want to kill him, doesn't mean I like him! R-Right?!"

"You hugged him?" Tsuna asked.

Kiriyuu went bright red. "U-Uh… eto, I can explain myself!"

"There's a possibility that Hibari likes you too."

"HUH?" This came from Tsuna and Kiriyuu at the same time.

"Hibari's always lived a solitary life. His parents were not there for him at a young age, so Hibari grew up differently, and strangely."

Well, that was probably one way of saying it…

Reborn continued, "And now that Kiriyuu has come into his life, under the false alias of his cousin from Italy, Hibari will by all means, make sure no harm will come to her and protect her no matter what, because he now feels he has a responsibility."

"Me? A responsibility?" Kiriyuu gawked, then she looked a bit upset. "… So I'm now a burden to him or something?"

"Maybe."

"B-But he hits me all the time. He works me like a dog, he starves me to death, he orders me around and he thinks I'm weak. He HATES weak people. And herbivores – did I ever tell you that I'm a **vegetarian**?! I can still eat fish and eggs though. And why would I like him? He's selfish, likes people begging him, and he's a total jerk. Your downright evil guy! The antagonist of an action movie!"

Tsuna coughed.

"And that's why you like him. And that's why he will like you. You provide him with a different kind of company his Disciplinary Committee cannot offer."

"EH? R-Reborn-sama…" Kiriyuu wailed unhappily.

"It also seems you're attracted to people with bad attitudes and personalities."

"W-Well, Hibari's not all that bad…" She muttered incoherently to herself. "He did save me from a falling ceiling of doom."

"See? You're even defending him."

"N-Noooo! I'm not! Look, this isn't '_The Jerry Springer Show_' - I absolutely DO NOT like him, okie?"

"Maybe you're approaching this in the wrong way."Reborn spoke up again. "Have you heard of the story of the idiot and the skylark?"

"Yes, I have." She nodded.

"Okay, then you should understand."

"... Understand what?"

Sigh. "Okay. Listen to this."

They listened.

"Two men and a woman go to a job interview for the spot of a professional hitman. The two men go in the room first, and face their wives tied to chairs – apparently; this is one of their tests to see if they were suitable to be hitmen. They were given guns and told to shoot their wives. Of course, the men couldn't, and didn't get the job because they loved their wives so much. The gun was empty anyway – it was just a test trial, after all."

Pause. Reborn continued.

"Now it's the woman's turn, she goes in, and sees her husband tied to a chair. The next moment, the room is filled with yells and banging noises. The woman comes back out, and they ask her how it went. And she replies: 'Well, the gun was out of bullets, so I had to use the chair to beat him to death.' Get it?"

There was a short silence.

"I don't get it." Tsuna said, blinking innocently at Reborn, and then he got slapped by Reborn across the face. "OWW!"

"I don't get it either." Kiriyuu then replied truthfully as she moved her glance from Tsuna to Reborn.

_**SMACK!**_

"Oww…"

"Okay, I'll tell you in the most simplest way." Even though Reborn was seemingly angry at the both of them for being so oblivious (he was angrier at Kiriyuu, actually), it didn't seem to show. He cleared his throat, and then pointed at her.

"You love him, Ottuso Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole. You love Hibari Kyouya."

Silence again. The girl stared gobbledy-gook at the infant. Then --

"_**NO WAY!?**_"


	8. Kiriyuu and the Magic Mushroom

A bit of a crack-filled chapter today. Rated for drugs. Really. Enjoy!

**Chapter 08**

_Kiriyuu on Drugs_

Kiriyuu had a Brain Jukebox. By that, she meant on several occasions depending on the situation; her mind would randomly flip to a song she knew and the tune would be constantly playing non-stop. It didn't even matter if she didn't know the lyrics.

This time, it was **The Darkness'** _I Believe in a Thing Called Love_.

She actually took the blow she suffered from Reborn to her heart in a pretty mature way. Well, sort of. After joining the Gardening Club, which was the only extracurricular activity accepting new members since gardening seemed so unpopular that the only two people who joined were also coincidentally the President and Vice President, Kiriyuu realised that Hibari would be waiting for her after school – just in case she got lost on her way back and DID get carried off by thugs – but really, what were the odds of that happening?

So Kiriyuu did a lot of mental debation, and some several scream therapy moments in the girl's only bathroom, scaring away half the female population of Namimori High and inducing rumours of a banshee living there in a single day. Not only that, but Kiriyuu stared at herself in the grimy mirrors; for some reason, her reflection looked a lot nicer than what she really looked like in real-life.

Why was she in a girl's bathroom in the first place? Well, for Kiriyuu, it was a place to think and a safe haven for all girls. Free from boys, free from Hibari, in her case. She acknowledged that she liked Hibari – maybe not LOVE him. Okay, she had a crush on him. So what? Crushes were harmless little things.

In fact, before Hibari, she had a crush on another boy back from her childhood days. She couldn't remember much about him because she was so young, but she knew it was a crush. The boy she fancied like mad also had to be quiet, and quite creepy. McCreepy, she dubbed him. She still remembered that nickname.

_I have a fetish for people with sadistic natures_. She then thought, not too pleased in admitting that herself. _I guess Hibari is pretty sadistic in a way? _

So what kind of girl did Hibari like? The smart type? The tomboy type? The sexy type? The cool type? Sadly, Kiriyuu was none. Not even a tomboy. She owned several frilly skirts, and didn't mind the colour pink – it wasn't her favourite. She bit her lip and sighed inwardly. Actually, she realised that she wavered near the 'GEEK' scale. Yes, Kiriyuu admitted being an absolute and perhaps snot-faced geek.

As if her teddy-bear bag gave anything away (which she didn't use anymore because it was destroyed by the average bully).

It looked uber-geeky because it had a spotted bow-tie and spectacles on it. She tried removing them but realised that they were superglued. Oh, and she liked _Star Wars_, too; there was nothing wrong with Star Wars! When she was younger, she desperately wanted a light-saber.

_Loser! _She thought. I'm _a big, gigantic, socking, huge loser who's high on the Loser scale! I could go on that show – the '__X Factor__' only I'll be seen on TV, going "I've got the Loser Factor, yaaaay!"_

Surprisingly, hitmen did experience low levels of self-esteem sometime in their life. Oh, and they were extremely self-conscious about their looks, too, and some of them operated differently. An example would be Dino, hawhaw.

So Kiriyuu did a survey - she tried to find out what girls Hibari liked; but ended up with not much luck. Hibari had never been seen with any girl or other person in particular except from his Disciplinary Committee therefore had sparked some rumours of him being homosexual, particularly with the assistant Head, Kusakabe-san. Perhaps this was true? And if that was true, then what were the odds of Hibari returning her 'love' for him? The chances were pretty low, since Hibari didn't seem to love anything – except from hamburgers – that's all she knew. Oh, he liked birds, too.

"You idiot!" She yelled at her reflection. "You're not supposed to fall in love with your enemy! You're not supposed to! That's not how hitmen work!" Then Kiriyuu stood back and sobbed on the spot. "It's like a love/hate relationship – only it's one-sided, too. Waaagh! Unrequited love hurtssss!"

Aside from that, Kiriyuu wondered if even liking Hibari was possible. She was a hitman, and he was her target. What would her family do if they found out that she had unsuccessfully carried out her mission because she liked him? How would Hibari react if he found out who she really was? ARGH. Too many questions, so little answers, no time, either. Kiriyuu started becoming scared. She was scared of Hibari and rejection, she was scared of her family, and she was even scared of her feelings.

_What's wrong with me? Why am I so scared_? She thought, trembling slightly. _I get it._ _I don't know what to do. _

"I give up." She then said, sighing.

She certainly did not look at Hibari when he approached her after school.

He certainly looked irate at her today. "People heard you screaming. I'd file a breach of public school peace for you in that case, and a restraining _screaming_ order in the girl's bathroom for the next ten months of your life here."

"Um. Oh -cough- Okie. Sorry."

_Silence._

"… Where do we go now?"

"Home, idiot."

She suddenly felt angry. Angry at Hibari. In fact, she was so angry that once they got home, she stormed into her room and didn't come back out. Whatever she was doing in there, Hibari didn't know. He didn't care anyway! He put his bag down and started on his work.

He also drew up a plan for her chores; every weekend morning, she'd start off with the dishes, then the mop and bucket, and the laundry, then she could finish off with polishing the silverware. He then heard a few yells and shouts of distress. Suddenly, Kiriyuu barged back out of her room and into the lounge.

Apparently, she had taken one look at her homework diary and screamed.

She was holding her schoolbag, although she had gotten changed out of her school uniform and was wearing a cropped pair of trousers and a long top with a belt strapped around her waist. "Eto… I'm stuck." She told him. "I'm stuck on Japanese Religion and History – I have an assignment about a guy named St Francis Xavier and his influence on Japan about Christianity in the 1500's. Or do I need to get on with chores first?"

"No. Homework is more important than housework for now and the mid-term exams are nearing. Sit down." He took his arm out from his chin and gestured to her to sit down beside him on the table.

For a few moments, she looked at him as if he had sprouted two heads. "F-For real?"

"Yes." This was coming from a guy who had their school's anthem as a ringtone.

"O-Oh mi gosh! I-I can't believe it…" She said with sparkling eyes at him. He irked immediately. "I-I'm doing homework…. And getting help from Hibari….wow…" She gushed, still looking pretty astounded at his offer, as she put down her bag and rooted out her fish-shaped pencil case, then her jotters and textbook. "I can't believe it! Me… getting help from Hibari… oh god, I – "

"Shut up and get your stuff out."

"Okie." As she opened the book, she wondered how smart Hibari actually was. Then again, asking someone about their IQ was not a very common question – and could also be a rather offensive one, too, unless the person was really smart.

There was a moment of silence.

"Hey. Hibari?"

"What?"

_Go on! Ask him how smart he is! _She was blinking up at him ingenuously, and he felt his insides squirm. _Why are you hesitating? You stupid idiot! Ask him!_

"… What do you want to be when you're older by the way?" Okay, that was nowhere near the question she had wanted to really ask.

He directed the question back. "What do _you_ want to be? You're a failure already."

"Hey! Eto… that's not true… and in response to your question, I want to be a **snake** when I'm older."

He smacked her head, hard. "Are you an idiot?"

"…. Owww… well, dreaming of being the greatest hitman was my – I-I mean… being the greatest hit… hit… um… pop sensation hit… chart number one… greatest hit… hit popstar?" Kiriyuu let go of her pathetic attempt to cover up what she had just blurted out to Hibari unconsciously. His eyes further narrowed at her anyway.

"Whatever."

_Phew, that was close!_

Aside from that useless bickering session from Kiriyuu, Hibari 'helped' her with her homework - and her studies. Although, he would occasionally bring violence into it, such as hitting her over the head with so much force that it made her eyeballs rattle in their sockets whenever she got something wrong, or made some stupid statement. They did work together for almost the rest of the day – until Kiriyuu realised that Hibari had actually not done his own work yet – boy, she really was a slow learner.

The only good thing that came out of this was that Kiriyuu was 'socialising' – with Hibari – which she thought was never possible, despite receiving a few blows to the head. He called it 'Positive reinforcement' in shaping her behaviour and learning – but Kiriyuu saw nothing _positive_ about using that just to get her to remember things.

But, she was actually starting to LIKE doing homework. Or maybe it was because Hibari was helping her? Argh! She had to stop thinking like that! Kiriyuu mentally slapped herself and tried to concentrate on her work, but she peeked up from her book, and glanced at Hibari, who was starting on his work.

"Stop staring at me and get on with your own work."

She braced for impact from his clenched fist – this time – nothing came. She blinked dumbly, and then muttered her apologies, before looking back at the book. It became boring all over again – something about evil landlords and inflation in some districts. Yawn.

So she sneaked a peek at Hibari again. Wow, she knew Hibari was rather beautiful and totally a hot-hot hottie, but she didn't realise that he also had… some sort of indistinguishable sensation of charisma wafting around his self-being, in spite of his societal status of being an aggressive and ruthless, weasel-boy wielding tonfas. She already thought he looked pretty cool in his uniform, and now he was just wearing a black shirt and loose denims, and he still looked absolutely _**yum**_.

Kiriyuu felt drool spill from the side of her open mouth, in a rather uncivil fashion.

Well, seeing a girl drool at the sight of him was equally as unattractive as it was disturbing – well, to Hibari, it was.

"You're staring again. Do you want me to gouge your eyes out?"

She squeaked and dug her nose into the book. "N-NO! S-Sorry!"

…………

By the end of the week, it was pretty obvious to everyone who Kiriyuu knew, that she liked Hibari - a lot – even though she never said it out-front. She really did like him a lot. How that came to be, no-one can really understand why. Maybe it was the fact that back in Italy, Kiriyuu was barely acknowledged in her family, and now she was getting full attention from someone she lived with, especially from a guy – she was overjoyed. When you like someone, you certainly can't stop thinking about them, or yapping about them, whether it be the positive or negative points.

She also gave back Kyoko's camera, refusing to take pictures of Hibari because she wanted him for herself. Oh, and if Kusakabe-san - the Second-in-Command Prefect who Hibari seemed to trust more than anyone - had anything to say or do to her, _bring it on!_

She didn't care about the likelihood of Hibari being possibly homosexual. She just knew she liked him. And she was crazy. So she was in love, and crazy. What a great combination of the two. If she was asked what was so great about Hibari, she'd reply that he was too 'yum' and he really did care for her without showing it – if he did show it – it'd be by using brute vigour, and that was it. Nothing else. Kiriyuu know seemed to be quite the shallow person. Or maybe the disadvantaged one.

However, she also refused to admit that she liked him.

Gokudera was the first person to crack; she was going on and on about how Hibari liked hamburgers and how she was trying to make some for him. "Shut up! You stupid girl – nobody cares about Hibari! Stop blabbing about him all the time! It's annoying!" He really was suppressing the inclination to drop a lit-up TNT stick under her chair and blow her into tiny pieces.

"Goku-san." She blurted out, "… Eto, I had no idea I was irritating you so much."

"Where have you been?" He said, knocking on her skull with his clenched fist; to his amusement and surprise; it made a hollow, rattling noise.

Kiriyuu went a bit silent, until Kyoko broke the awkward silence that had went through between the group. "Kiriyuu-chan, didn't you say your gardening group was meeting up today?"

Gokudera sniggered, and from under the desk, Kiriyuu stepped on his foot; Tsuna thought he would try and make Gokudera and Kiriyuu get along better by forcing them to sit beside each other. Well, it sort of worked. "OW!" He yelped, before growling at her, baring his teeth; Kiriyuu just squeaked and hid behind Tsuna.

"Tsuna! Shield me with your big hair from Goku-san's wrath!" She shrieked, while Yamamoto let out a roar of laughter. Things certainly were a bit different in school now – the relationship between Gokudera and Kiriyuu was just like Lambo and Gokudera's relationship.

Tsuna just smiled awkwardly. "Gokudera-kun, Kiriyuu's not bothering anyone, so… just… em… chill…?" Now he was starting to sound like Yamamoto.

"H-Hai, Juudaime!" Gokudera squawked, before glowering at Kiriyuu as she peeked out.

She grinned at Tsuna and patted his shoulder. He smiled back. "Thanks, Tsuna – anyway, I gotta go meet up with my club and show them my new crop."

"Oh, what's that?"

She held up a green plant that had seemingly come from nowhere, and grinned. "My mother sent me it from Italy."

Everyone gawked at her.

"Eto, see ya guys after lunch." And with that, Kiryuu was gone.

Tsuna looked at Gokudera, who gawked back at him. "… That looked like a cannabis plant…" Then his eyes widened to the size of soccer balls. "Nooo! Kiriyuu-chan!!"

………..

The Gardening club's headquarters was actually the deserted greenhouse which was rumoured to be haunted. So far, Kiriyuu was the only new member; she didn't actually like gardening, but she thought it was reasonable. It meant she could pull at weeds – and she loved weed-pulling. She pushed open the door of the greenhouse, and waved at the two who were already present.

"Yo! I brought a new plant. My mother said it was a fuchsia bulb, but I'm not too sure. It smells funny – eh… what's this white powder?? It smells funny, too..." She took a deep inhaled out of it, and exhaled dreamily as some of the mysterious white powder entered her nostrils and all over her nose. "Reminds me of Hiba – I mean – Hyacinths!"

They rolled their eyes at her. "Okay, Kiriyuu-san, you can plant it somewhere in the schoolyard."

"Okie. I'm going now." She took a shovel, a watering can and a bag of patch-mud, and then promptly left the greenhouse.

Although, on the way, Kiriyuu began to feel a bit sleepy… yawn… actually, not so sleepy… more like… floaty…. Yeah… like a boat. She was… on a boat? The ground was wobbling… going up and down… strange… so many… ooh… the colours… and pretty lights… sounds were fading, and Kiriyuu stopped in her tracks, staring at the bright, sunny sky, as other students pushed past her in the schoolground. She just stood there, blinking sleepily.

Then the mud bag and trowel fell out of her hands and onto the ground.

Her dazed-looking eyes were fixated on the sky. She felt like she had wings, and she could sprout them out and fly… she felt… invincible… and nice. She felt happy. So very, very happy… which was also strange, but nice. Yes, yes, very, very nice. She sat down on the ground and stared up at the sky, watching the birds.

"Oooh…. Birds…" She cooed, and then she flapped her arms around, giggling insanely. "I'm a bird too… I can fly! Cacaw! Cacaw!"

A few students passing her as she sat on the open ground began whispering immediately. "Weirdo."

Kiriyuu continued. "Look at all the pretty little birdies… so many birds… coo coo…. Yeah… pigeons do that… cooo…. I'm a pigeon. I love pigeons. Coooo…" Ahhh… it felt great. Kiriyuu felt like her body weighed no pounds at all as her mind soared high into the air - and then –

"What are you doing sitting in the middle of the school ground, you twit? Lunch is over. Get back to class - now."

Kiriyuu stopped flapping her arms and looked up; it was Hibari – standing, towering above her, looking intimidating without trying to as usual. "…. Hibari." She said dazedly. "Hibari Kyouya…. I know you… You're… you're..."

"… What the hell are you doing?"

"Me…? First… I was a bird… I was a pigeon!" She had grabbed onto his leg and had rubbed her face against it like how a cat rubbed itself against its owner's leg. "… Hibari… Why are you so beautiful? So beautiful… so very, very beautiful of them all! I'm not worthy I'm not worthy… You are… colourful… so… pretty colours… white… black…"

WTF? He kicked her off and she went egg-rolling a distance away from him. "Oooooh." She cooed, staring at the sky again. "… I feel warm..." Then she began to take off her shirt, and then discarded it to the side, then latched her hands on her under-vest, trying to pry it off.

Before anymore unintended striptease from the girl could ensue; Hibari, with an invisible vein popping in his head, had thoroughly grabbed her and propped her back onto her feet. She gaped indolently at him again, smiling aloofly as he put her shirt back and buttoned some of the buttons up for her.

"What's wrong with you?"

"I dunno… eto… But I feel awesome, dude...It feels… righteous!" She replied back, her head lolling to the side and back. She struggled out from his grip and waddled clumsily to a tree trunk near them, and picked up two, long sticks.

Hibari did not like where this was going.

"… And now I'm Hibari! I'll bite joo to death… choo herbivore…take this… and that! I like hamburgers!" Then she began to jump around him in circles with the two sticks attached to her arms. "I use tonfas! Kill everyone… bite them to death… begin dictatorship over Namimori… Hoohaa!"

This was NOT amusing anymore. "I'm taking you to the nurse's office." He said, before dragging her by the wrist back into the school.

"Then I came! Kiriyuu Ottusooo!" She kept squawking her head off. "Expert See-Nigh-Pah (sniper) and famous and uber-rich hitm - " Unfortunately, her legs gave way and she crashed to the ground; her arm still being gripped by Hibari. She fell flat-face on the cold, dirty ground.

He sighed.

"…. I fell." She said to him, as she pulled her head back up.

Hibari growled under his breath, and marched back to her, before lifting her off the ground completely, an arm under her knees and one around the small of her back – Kiriyuu suddenly seemed to have snapped awake for a brief moment as she felt herself crush against his chest. She just blinked dumbly again, and then began sucking her thumb.

"Strawberry…" She cooed again. "Mmmm…."

Hibari dumped her on an empty bed in the Nurse's Office; she went rolling around in the bed until she was wrapped up in the covers with her head sticking out, and then had to be re-rolled out for a check.

Unfortunately, there was no diagnosis for this unusual behaviour. The Nurse decided to leave them alone, and wait for this weird moment to pass – Hibari frowned at her as she stared at the ceiling blankly. He put a hand over her forehead; she wasn't having a fever or anything – so what the hell was wrong with her? He didn't know if she was faking this just to miss class, but someone wouldn't go that far, right? And why would she do such a thing, anyway?

Suddenly, he realised that she had a smear of white powder on her cheek, which he hadn't noticed before. He used a finger and wiped it off her – she just giggled and began messing around in the covers. Hibari inspected this strange white powder, and sniffed it inauspiciously.

Ahh, cannabis.

So that's what it was.


	9. My Mother is a Drug Dealer

**Chapter 09**

_My Mother is a Drug Dealer_

Kiriyuu woke up with a start, feeling insecure, scared, worried, terrified, even; actually, she had been half conscious but also unconscious, if that was possible. Her eyes went up and down; scanning her surroundings. Oh god, she thought. She was strapped down to a bed and remembered everything she had said, and everything she had did, and was now facing a very angry-looking Hibari who had been watching over her in the Nurse's Office for the past hour.

"I won't ask you how you got the drugs, but the Disciplinary Committee will cover up for you." He grunted at her.

She stared back at him wide-eyed. "Huh? The Disciplinary Committee will cover up the drugs – eh? WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!" She screamed at him.

He smacked her. She snapped out of her trance.

"Drugs?" She squeaked again, before Hibari hit her over the head again. "Oww… W-What happened? I feel… I feel horrible…"

"Well, you seem better now. I'm going back to class."

"Wait, Hibari!" She called after him desperately, struggling feebly in the bed, but her wrists and ankles were tightly secured to the bed by elastic bands for some reason. "...I'm scared."

"Why?"

"I feel like I've done something bad. Otherwise, why am I restrained to the bed?"

"I did that. You sabotaged school property, disrupted more public peace and found guilty in the possession of cannabis." Hibari replied shortly, and Kiriyuu's eyes widened.

"No way!" She wailed, and then she stopped. "Um. Hibari… Do I need to go through rehab?"

"Do you have any unnatural urges to find inner peace and eternal happiness in your miserable life?"

"Eto… No."

"Then you're fine."

"Okie."

Silence.

"Where did you get cannabis from?" He asked.

"Um… My mother sent me it…"

"Your mother is a drug dealer?"

"Eto… I don't know…!" She gawked up at Hibari nervously. "Hibari. Don't send me to a Psychiatric Ward, please!"

"Why would I go through all that trouble?"

More awkward silence.

"Can you untie me?"

The silence came again.

Kiriyuu frowned inwardly. "_**Please?**_"

He could leave her there, but the Nurse left him in charge of duties with the other students pretending to be sick to skip class – who he sent packing to the hospital instead with bruises and burst lips – but he couldn't leave her anyway – she was doing chores today, after all.

"Fine." Hibari leant over to untie her left wrist; and then stopped.

Their faces were very close to each other.

Kiriyuu swallowed, as she just blinked stupidly at him as he stared back at her. She was trying not to breathe too much – she had a fear that people would realise that her breath smelt really bad – if it did, that was. And she also realised how blemish-free Hibari's face was for a sadistic teenager. Although, she realised that his bottom lip looked a bit stiff – maybe it was because he frowned all the time. He was vicious, but still a teenager undergoing a battle against of puberty. She wondered when Hibari's voice would crack – or maybe it had cracked already?

"Your face annoys me." He said, before pulling her pillow out from her under her head and replacing it over her face.

Kiriyuu immediately couldn't breathe as she felt the soft pillow cover her, and she thrashed around violently under his iron-grip over the pillow. He was smothering her!! Kiriyuu inwardly screamed, and once he untied her other wrist free, she whipped the pillow off her, glaring fiercely.

"WERE YOU TRYING TO _**KILL **_ME?!"

Now she felt the roles had turned around; previously it was her who had been trying to kill him – and now it was seemingly him trying to kill her.

He told her to shut her gob and untied her legs; she resisted the growing urge to kick him. But no, she settled back down on the ground, still feeling a bit dizzy, and she swayed a bit on the spot, before almost toppling over a rack of syringes, until…

Hibari caught her.

It was the ultimate cheesy and cliché moment that happened in every chick-flick movie she had seen. For him, it was unnecessary contact as her cold, clammy hand made contact with his arm. She wondered who had that grasp on her waist, supporting her, and realised it was Hibari. He was staring into her eyes, she was staring at his; he realised her eyes were rather bloodshot. She had seen this memorable scene in the manga and the movies - An alarm rang loudly in Kiriyuu's brain - CHEESE CHEESE CHEESE ALERT! Then his eye twitched furiously and he shoved her away from him; then she went crashing into the medicine trolley, promptly knocking over the medicine bottles.

Okay, cheese moment over now.

"… You're cleaning that up." He said coldly, stepping over her body on the floor and leaving the Office.

Kiriyuu was left there, blinking dumbly again as the medicine contents spilled around her, gluing her fingers together in progress. And then she frowned; what was wrong with him? He almost suffocated her drastically with a pillow, but then caught her before she could fall, and then he pushed her away? What was the point of that?

She pulled at her hair in frustration. Boys were just too confusing!

Especially Hibari. He was just… an enigma. Truly. She didn't even know what that word meant – but she thought it was and sounded special. Yeah, Hibari was special – in a really, really disturbing way!!

No, he was a Wo-Maneater! She had it in her Brain Jukebox, '_Maneater_' by **Nelly Furtado**, only she added a 'Wo' and was describing the Wo-Maneater as Hibari, duh!

_Wo-ManEater, makes ya work hard, make ya spend all, make ya wanna get all his love. _

_He's a Wo-Maneater, make ya buy cars, make ya cut cards, make ya fall real hard in love… la la la… Damn you, Hibari!_

……………

A few weeks passed. It was eventually the weekend, and even though Kiryuu had wanted to utilise this free time to go and restock on some bullets for her small pistol gun, but realised that she had promised to do more chores. So instead, she safely stowed away the Snake Sniper which Reborn had given her even though she never shot Hibari, made a new password for her suitcase, which was actually now half-loaded with explosives and devices, and then left her room, and back into the lounge.

"Can I get some paper?"

"Get some from your jotter."

She grumbled under her breath, then trudged back into her room and ripped a page from her jotter and grabbed a fluffy pen from her case, then returned back. She wanted to write a letter back to her family. Even though she wondered what was the point because she had only been here for just a few weeks, so she put the pen and paper back.

On the list of chores for today, was grocery-shopping; Hibari gave her an uber-long list and some money.

"If you spend that money yourself, I will kill you."

"Oh. Okie. Don't worry, I won't." Though she was tempted to keep the change.

"And if you keep the change, I will kill you also."

She sighed. There was no way to ever defy against Hibari. This house had a system of politics which she couldn't break free. No space for evil conspiracies, either. Hibari was the source of all evil conspiracies. He sent her packing out of the house with another death threat, and Kiriyuu stormed all the way to the grocery-store. She thought why Hibari was like that.

_Only non-educated delinquents say things like that and do things like that to innocent people like me. Only Hibari's not a NED. He's still educated, and a delinquent – a violent one, too. So he's an ED. Or an EVD - If that even makes sense. Nah, I like ED better. Hibari the ED. Hehehe…_

She passed a Bird Shop on the way back, carrying five extra-heavy bags. She stopped, and stared at the numerous wooden cages adorning the entire shop, and cooed at them as the birds flitted around in their cages, chirping and what not.

"Ooh. How cute." She gushed, as she peered at a cage, with two orangey-red birds snuggling against one another. "Wow…" She squealed, smiling widely at them. Sooo cute….

"Those are Lovebirds, little miss. The Red Berry kinds – see their red spots?" The store owner said, gesturing to the bird's spotted bodies.

"Oohoohoo!" She giggled insanely, and she grinned at the storekeeper. "Yes, yes, I see them! How much are they individually?"

"Whoa, I'm sorry, little miss. They're not for sale individually. If they don't have their partners, they'll die."

"Oh dear."

"Oh dear indeed."

"Well… next time… when I have more money, I'll come and buy a pair." She told him, and then she left the shop, smiling to herself.

……………

Hibari noticed her good mood when she arrived back, but it was soon tarnished when he ordered her to put the groceries into the fridge.

"But I don't know the password." She protested back weakly.

"It's 0010076024582000348200."

Her lip trembled fiercely. "EH? Say that again?"

"0010076024582000348200."

She still didn't get it all; well, how could she? This just made her ponder more about Hibari – he must have like… a memory of a robot or something. "… Say it again!" She demanded.

"No."

"Hibari!" She wailed helplessly at him, flailing her arms around. She wailed, and wailed, until he couldn't take it anymore – plus, the ice cream he commanded her to buy was also melting.

So he grabbed the bags himself and then stuffed them into the fridge. When he came back out, Kiriyuu was staring at him like an idiot.

"What?" He demanded irately.

"I'm done with my chores." She blurted out.

There was another awkward moment.

"Yes, so?"

"…Do you have anything to do?" She asked, feeling a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable.

"Not anything important." He replied, calm and cool as usual.

"Oh."

Silence. Crickets in the background.

Kiriyuu scratched at her ear. "Um... Wanna go fishing...um... together?" _CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP! What the hell have I have just done? Me and Hibari - fishing?!_

He watched her for a few seconds.

_I wonder what would happen if he said yes?_

"You're not allowed to fish in the canal."

Kiriyuu clenched her fists, and then sighed. "... But I did it last time."

"Yes, and you were lucky I didn't turn you in to the authorities."

_Guess that's a No._

She swallowed in response. "Well, what can we do then?"

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"You said you weren't busy! And I'm bored, too. Plus, there's nothing on TV… and I don't have enough money for Disneyland… eto, so can't we do something?"

"Even though I'm not busy doesn't mean I intend to spend my free time with you."

"……." Her lip wavered dangerously, and her eyes watered thoroughly. She thought that was really mean – but she never said anything in return.

And with that, he went into his room and slammed the door shut in her face.

"(Stupid Hibari)!" She whispered angrily at the closed door; she was afraid of Hibari hearing and coming back to pummel her.

Hmph, okay, since Hibari wouldn't be spending time with her; Kiriyuu thought it was only normal to go and find Kyoko-chan or go to Tsuna-san's house – but she didn't know where Tsuna lived, and she forgot where Kyoko lived, too. She grumbled and plopped down on the open porch, staring at the garden outside. Hmm… Well, it was a nice day, and the wind was making the laundry flutter in the breeze; maybe she should do some gardening instead?

She tried to find some gardening tools; then realised they were probably all locked up in the garden shed Hibari had outside the household; so she slipped back out of the house, and found the shed – unfortunately, it was locked. She was too afraid of asking Hibari for the keys, but it also meant that she wasn't going to try and hack it open, too. She found a bunch of keys anyway, after ransacking around in the kitchen, and ran back outside.

The keys were right; the shed was actually much cleaner than she thought. There were no cobwebs in the corner nor was it in the rough state of the average garage. It was quite… spotless; it even had a lightbulb attached to the ceiling, and was fitted with a paved stone floor, even though being as big as an average bathroom. She walked over to a strange object covered by a white cloth, and pulled it away - to reveal a motorbike, and her eyes popped.

"Eto… but Hibari's underage to drive one…?!" She exclaimed; as she gawped at the shiny vehicle.

She had also never seen Hibari use this motor vehicle, either. Her business was not with the motorcycle though, even though she really wanted a ride in it if Hibari knew how to drive a motorbike; she found a few gardening spades and shovels, and took them out, then locked the door and went back to the garden.

**Three and a Half Minutes Later - **

"Who said you could barge into the kitchen and take the keys to the shed?"

This was promptly followed with a few smacks to her head. She winced painfully as her brain stopped jiggling around. So this was what pulling at weeds in Hibari's garden got her in return. Not even a thank you for ridding his lawn of unnecessary overgrown bushes?? Of course not! He found her with the shovel which the Disciplinary Committee used to bury dead bodies and instantly became very angry, even though he didn't actually show it entirely; he was calm and cool as usual, and this was what truly scared Kiriyuu the most.

She didn't know what Hibari was thinking half the time. Heck, she thought he was an alien. Screw what Reborn said before about Hibari not being brought up properly under the loving care of a father and mother! He was weird! He was like… a cookie. Cookies were like humans, every cookie looked different; no two cookie looked the same because of the places where the chocolate chips were. Wait – she did not fully understand that concept herself. Hmph.

"I was bored!" She protested back weakly. "And look! I found ants. Lots and lots of ants!"

Kiriyuu held up a plastic, transparent box to him which had thousands of tiny reddish-brown bugs crawling around. Hibari's eye twitched, rather fiercely, too. It wasn't because he was afraid of bugs – well, Kiriyuu thought that – it was actually because Hibari didn't want bugs in his house. If he ever found a spider dangling down beside him from the ceiling, it'd face a very squishy, quick death.

"You're not keeping them."

"WHAT? Eto… Why not?"

"Ants aren't pets."

"Well, I'm allergic to most animals with fur like cats and dogs, and birds are too expensive, so why can't I have an ant for a pet?"

"They're trouble."

"Eh, what do you know, Hibari?" She stuck her tongue out at him, and then went back to messing around with the box. "I think you're scared!" She waved the box in front of his face. "Hibari doesn't like bugs!"

He hit her over the head again in response. "If you say that again, I'll teach you what the word 'pain' really means."

She swallowed, then turned away from him, back to her nest of ants-in-a-box. "Oooh! That one's laying an egg!"

He left her at that; redeeming that her brain was impossible and made no attempt to stop her.

She'll learn the consequences later on.


	10. His Polystation 3

For some reason I really like this chapter...

**Chapter 10**

_His Polystation 3_

The consequences of keeping a nest of ants in the house arrived too soon for Kiriyuu.

Hibari took one hour and fifty minute-long baths. Usually by then, all the hot water would be used up and she would have to boil water in a shallow pan downstairs in the kitchen and use that instead.

That took normally two hours. So now it was roughly midnight.

However, this time, after her bath, Kiriyuu knew she had forgotten something when she stepped back out of the bathroom. She looked down at herself – yes, she had remembered to get properly dressed before leaving the bathroom to avoid more embarrassing encounters with Hibari – okay, so it wasn't that. She sniffed herself. Yes, she had remembered to soak herself in bubblesoap for today, too. Kiriyuu then breathed out into her palms and sniffed the enclosed air; yes, she remembered to brush her teeth also. She looked at the pan in her hand; yes, she had also remembered to bring that back out, too.

So what had she forgotten?

Kiriyuu couldn't seem to recall, so she shrugged the feeling off, and opened the door to her bedroom before screaming at the top of her lungs.

"_AAAARRGHHHHHHHH!"_

Hibari was disrupted in the peaceful kitchen by the sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs, and then, out popped Kiriyuu's dishevelled look on her face through the doorway, even though she had just taken a bath it looked as if she hadn't. She actually looked amusing in that panicked state of desperation; her skin as white as a ghost, eyes bulging to the size of plates, hands waving around in the air as if she was playing an unrecorded game of Eyetoy Groove or something.

"Hibari!" She squawked, flailing her arms around and jumping up and down on her spot. "Come quick! It's an outbreak – a complete epidemic!" She actually yelled that out without thinking what the words truly meant. She turned back; then realised that he hadn't budged yet. Kiriyuu frowned, then promptly grabbed his arm and tried to drag him up the stairs. She led him to the outside of her room; her door was closed.

"Have a look." She cried, covering her eyes with her hands. "It's awful…. I can't watch!"

Hibari pulled open the door away – and then he saw it.

_**Ants.**_

There were thousands of them, crawling around, breeding like crazy, ten of 'em even carrying a dead spider for food. Eew! There were so many ants. Lots and lots of ants. Here, there. Everywhere! ANTS! The box that was previously containing them was lying open on her bed – Kiriyuu had probably forgotten to close it once it was her time to take a bath - and now they were crawling all over bed, her clothes, her suitcase…

He had an infestation of ants! Hibari whipped back round to her after slamming her door shut; she swallowed, refusing to look up at him, then went 'eep!' and tried to run away – but he grabbed her back by the collar and dragged her back downstairs.

Meanwhile, the local bug-exterminator was sleeping peacefully beside his wife – then the phone rang.

……………..

The bug exterminator was called at half midnight; he was death-threatened over the phone, and had to come despite the fact that his working hours had finished ages ago. His wife wished him luck. But Hibari was Hibari. No-one ever defied him. Hibari was in a really foul, horrible mood as well when the exterminator arrived; Hibari was standing at the porch in his nightclothes with his arms crossed over his chest, his cousin beside him; she was looking silly and dazed, swaying on the spot with two black eyes. Her hair was matted and all over the place, her arms looked red and swollen, and one of her legs was twisted in a strange fashion. She smiled at the guy as he approached them, showing him some missing five or six teeth.

Hibari put away his bloodied tonfas and ordered the exterminator to go upstairs. "You'll see the room." He told him.

"E-Eh?" The exterminator said; still staring at the girl who looked badly-beaten up nervously. "Of course, Hibari-kun."

With his bug-killing gear and orange jumpsuit, the exterminator stormed upstairs, and then began to hear the screams of the poor girl downstairs, followed by a few crashing noises, another scream, then a loud 'thud'.

"Oww! I said I was sorry, Hibari! ARGH! My _liver_!"

The exterminator brushed away the spine tingling feeling and arrived at the upstairs landing; there was a message indicating the room with the infestation scribbled on the wall – in fresh **blood**. The exterminator went 'eeeeek' like a pipsqueak mouse in horror. No doubt the blood belonged to the girl.

…………

For the next few days; Kiriyuu wouldn't be able to go back into her room, he said – nor would she be able to gain access to her suitcase or any other belongings for a very long time. The exterminator had filled an ant-killing gas through a gap in the door, completely filling the room with noxious toxins deadly to ants. To make sure nothing got out; he rammed some old cloths at the bottom of the door, and double-sealed the window with sticky masking tape. Sure, the next morning, they'd probably find ten million dead and tiny ant carcasses in the room – yuck – that room would certainly be unavailable for use in the future years.

And it was all Kiriyuu's fault. She had no scapegoat to put the blame on this time. It was HER who brought the ants inside. It was HER who didn't listen to Hibari earlier on. It was HER who suddenly decided to open the box of ants and try to name them all. It was also HER who left the box open. How could anyone be so stupid, idiotic and just plain… thick, dense, dim-witted? She certainly felt sorry – not when Hibari beat her up, though. She just felt sorry in general, and hated and cursed at her carelessness. Because of her, a room in Hibari's house was ruined forever! And because of her, ten million ants would die! What a murderer! She was a monster! A stupid, careless monster called Ottuso Kiriyuu!

Hibari wasn't talking to her after that either, and she didn't like it – even though he never really did talk to her properly. He certainly ignored her afterwards; despite the loud howling and the crying sounds she emitted as she sat on the stairs – not just because of the pain he inflicted on her and the fact that he used her blood to write on his wall – which she would be washing off afterwards herself with a cloth and bucket of warm water – but because she thought she failed Hibari.

Failed?

What did that mean anyway?

Kiriyuu was still crying as Hibari stormed past her up the stairs once the exterminator left – he'd be coming back the next morning to check up on them. He ignored her – obviously. He had been ignoring her for the past half hour. She actually thought it was better when he beat her up, at least she knew he acknowledged her. But this… negligence… it felt... awful.

"I'm a failure… -sob sob-…. I can't do things properly… I can never do things properly… I just make things worse for people… -sob sob sob- I'm a walking disaster… I'm sorry, Hibari… -sob cry mope sob- I'm so sorry… aahawwhawwhaww…. Woe is me! Don't look at me, Hibari. I'm a monster!"

He had never looked at her properly for more than ten seconds, anyway.

She also had no clue where she would be sleeping for the remainder of the night. Her belongings were inside the room, and she was terrified that the exterminator would go through them, and expose her for who she truly was to Hibari – but she couldn't go in. There were no spare blankets or pillows from her knowledge of Hibari's house. Also, Hibari's sofa in the living room was pretty uncomfortable because of the hard springs under the seat, and it was cold in the big, huge and empty living room. Kiriyuu was stuck with no choice. Hibari's bedroom light went off, and she was engulfed in night-time darkness.

She whimpered, then trotted meekly back downstairs to the living room and flung herself over the sofa; she really did hurt. Physically and mentally. Her gums hurt like hell, and so did her ribcage. Her leg had to be twisted back into the right way – which also hurt a lot. Kiriyuu tried to get comfortable on the sofa; she fluffed up a few cushions and then pasted her face against them, trying to sleep. It was too cold and the clock on the wall seemed to tick louder in the room because it was so silent. Actually, she could also hear the loud clicking of cicadas outside, plus, a frog going 'ribbit, ribbit' and an owl hooting from a branch. After what seemed to be half an hour of tossing and turning in her 'sleep'; the light went on, and she promptly yanked off the sofa, and onto the floor.

"Eeek! Wha - ?"

"Get up." It was Hibari.

"Huh? Why?" She said, with a slight lisp.

"Just get up, or do I have to drag you unconscious into my room?"

"EH?" Her face went bright red for a strange reason as she gawked at him. "… O-Okie…" Kiriyuu got up wobbly, and he grabbed her arm, and then towed her along, retreating back towards the direction of his room.

Yes, he had just 'asked' her to go into his room. But... why?

Wow, Kiriyuu was actually getting to go inside Hibari's bedroom for the very first time, and surprisingly enough, she did not think that along with any contemptible, possible, sexual connotations regarding issues when a girl gets 'invited' to a boy's room. Yet again, she was only 14 years old, and didn't know what 'menopause' meant, or PMS. Besides, Kiriyuu was a pretty feeble-minded simpleton.

A moron, basically.

She wondered what Hibari's room was like as they neared his open door; there were a number of possibilities flipping through her mind like jukebox tracks at the moment - Number 1, Hibari's room looking identical to a medieval torture chamber used back in the mid-centuries with numerous torture devices hanging from the ceiling and a bed of nails, plus the ominous iron maiden box in the corner. Number 2, Hibari's room resembling a typical jock's bedroom with pictures of football stars, boy junk and posters of nude ladies with huge chests who would never go out with them in a million years. Or number 3, Hibari's room baring similarities to an eccentric, cult-infested bat cave with chalk-drawn symbols on the walls and floor.

None of her ridiculous guesses were right.

The lights of the rest of the house were closed, except from Hibari's room, so she shielded her eyes from the intense light they were nearing – it was like something from _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_ – only there was no alien with long, spangly, spindle-like limbs or tiny, children-sized aliens with big, bobbly heads – just a concentrated, bright light. When they finally arrived; he let go of her arm and shut the door behind them. She leapt up at the sound, but paid no attention to it. Why should she be getting suspicious as to why he locked the room, eh? (more sarcasm)

Kiriyuu was then left to marvel at Hibari's room – as if it was some kind of… museum or something.

His room was very normal; with no posters of nude chicks on the white walls, or any symbols drawn on the light pinewood flooring – and certainly no sharp, pointy objects hanging from the ceiling. There was a desk and lamp, a typical chair, and a lone closet standing in the corner which she was very suspicious of, however. Hibari's tonfas were hanging from a rack behind his door, sparkling a little in the light. But the object which caught her eyes was the TV opposite his double bed, and a –

"Polystation 3?!" She gushed immediately, before turning back to Hibari with a funny expression on her face. "You have a _Polystation 3_!"

The Polystation was not only the most advanced piece of gaming technology computing software so far in the gaming corner for geeks like her (and Hibari, too??), but was also the potential Green-Ray player, only available in High Definition, aka HDTV, ala DVD substitute! Le Gasp!

As Kiriyuu practically pranced forward further into his room as if it was a field of flowers towards his Polystation 3, Hibari rolled his eyes at her and crossed his arms. See? This was what he was going to have to suffer and endure for the rest of the night.

"Let's see what games Hibari has… Ooh! **Sole Calibur 4**?! Noe wayz! And oh mi gosh! **Violent Hill 5**?"

Well, that game wasn't so surprising even though he was actually kind of underage for it since Hibari liked violence. But this one?? Kiriyuu held up a certain game at him, a grin forming.

"**Kingdom Tarts?** I never knew you were that sort of person, Hibari. Oieeheehee."

He snatched it out of her hand and barked at her, "Have you finished violating my privacy yet?"

"Oieeheehee," she gave out the creepy old-man laugh again, along with a creepy old-man grin, and since she was missing some teeth, it worked even better. "Hey, Hibari. Since it's the weekend, can I play?"

"No."

"PLEASE?"

"No."

She still opened the box anyway; ignoring Hibari's hands grasping towards the ends of his tonfas from the stand – even though roughing her up with the tonfas was still not enough to pry her off his gaming system. Kiriyuu was probably the most defiant and disobedient girl (and possibly the only girl) Hibari knew – she was really asking for a death sentence, wasn't she? She opened his Polystation 3 and slipped in the disc for Sole Calibur 4, then picked up the wireless controller and sat up against the end of the bed, then waved the extra controller at him.

"I don't know why you have another controller since you live alone, but… you should come and play too."

**A few seconds later…**

She was still bleeding from the head as Hibari took up the extra controller anyway before stowing away his bloody tonfas; and they played Sole Calibur 4 – a fighting simulation game where all the playable characters were types of **fish**, like Plaice, Cod, Turbot and even Tuna, all wielding swords, ninja shurikens, sabres, spears, and other ancient weaponry. Kiriyuu's persistence in playing his Polystation 3 was a bit too much. She didn't even get a plaster for her wounds.

"I have dibs on the Lemon Sole!"

Hibari picked the ever-fearsome White Tip shark, and Kiriyuu picked her cute little Lemon Sole – and then got her virtual fish butt kicked. While they were playing; she began to wonder who had actually taught Hibari to fight – or maybe he taught himself?

Despite her something twenty-something losses to Hibari that her record was too bad to be true, she was still keen to continue, until remembering that Hibari had Violent Hill 5, a survival horror type of RPG game, but with not so much battling tactics. Kiriyuu was too chicken to play such a violent game. The character Hibari was playing as was thrown into a world of madness and monsters and just had to kill, kill, kill in order to survive. Kiriyuu thought again; playing these games really did a toll on someone's sanity.

It was gruesome, freaky; and Kiriyuu had never seen anything like it before, as she watched Hibari play without breaking a sweat or going 'OH MY EFFING GOD' like she did on some random, scary moments of the game, she resorted to hide behind Hibari's back, trembling and shaking at the same time. She was scarred and disturbed for life! Not good!

Finally, Hibari put down the controller to her relief, and yawned. "It's half 4." Surprisingly enough, he didn't sound angry – after all, she did drag him into this and they'd been playing for more than 3 hours. Then he declared, "We're going to sleep."

Kiriyuu's eyes widened; this was perhaps the best moment of her life – but discovering the world of manga and bishounens could be the best moment of her life, too.

She whooped, did a 360 degree backflip on the floor, then pounced on top of Hibari's bed – and realised how hard it actually was – she felt as if she had crushed every bone in her body because of that impact of landing.

"Ow." She croaked out, before turning to him. "Hibari, why is your bed like a rock?"

"It's good for your posture." He merely replied, as he walked over to his closet after switching off the Polystation 3.

"Ooh." She said as her mouth formed a tiny 'o', and then tried to bounce on it – it didn't work. She just ended up hurting her rear.

Hibari returned with a futon and a pillow; and she blinked at him, as he set it down on the floor. Kiriyuu didn't have to think twice, and then she frowned. "… I'm sleeping there?"

"Correct. Now get off my bed."

"…. But it's cold down there, and… and – " The look on Hibari's face made her lift her butt off his bed and onto the floor without saying anything else; good, now she was being obedient.

He switched the light off, when Kiriyuu tried to get herself comfortable on the futon at the side of his bed, and stepped on her as he went to his own bed, hearing a sick 'crack', then a squeak of pain from Kiriyuu.

"Night, Hibari." She croaked out at him.

"Goodnight."

Her eyes suddenly cracked open. "What did you just say?"

He leaned over the edge of his bed. " – Goodnight; now go to sleep."

Kiriyuu blinked at him strangely, then giggled, and then further snuggled under the covers again. "Night, Hibari!" Then she giggled again. "Hey. Hibari?"

"What?"

"Good night! Eeheeheee!" Ugh. If only she knew how infuriating she could be. She decided to try it again. "Hey, Hib – "

" - Shut up."

………..

Kiriyuu was still wide awake, and kept tossing and turning in her covers. She was uncomfortable. The futon was old, cold, and Kiriyuu had had enough. She didn't know if Hibari was asleep yet, because she never heard him snoring. Geez, that guy is perfect. Didn't snore, didn't sleeptalk, didn't sleepwalk!? Unlike Kiriyuu – who drooled, talked and maybe walked, in her sleep.

From under her pillow, she pulled out Kyoko's camera. She actually hid it within her shirt beforehand so Hibari still didn't seem to know why she had a rectangular bumpy outline on her stomach. Or so she thought anyway. Kiriyuu didn't even know why she had agreed to do this. Sure, she said it was an intrusion upon someone's privacy, but with such a good opportunity to catch Hibari, completely vulnerable at his current state, was a once in a lifetime chance. And probably a one-way trip to _The Land of the Dead_ – if he woke up. If he did, though, if he did.

So she caterpillar-wiggled out from her futon and emerged back up at the side of his bed. So far, so good.

She switched on the digital camera, turned it to silent, with no flash, and then positioned it carefully above him. He was sleeping peacefully, and Kiriyuu stopped for a moment.

_He looks so cu – ARGH. What the hell am I doing? Take a frickin' picture right now!_

It was still dark in the room, but she was sure she could suss something out to bring out the light. She snapped – completely forgetting the all-time 'click' of the button which no matter how silent you put the camera on, it still clicked. Well, for her case anyway.

Hibari moved.

Kiriyuu squeaked, stepped back in alarm and quickly switched off the camera, and dive-bombed back under the futon, hiding the camera back into her pillow.

Hibari got up, and she could him loud and clear. "What was that?" It didn't even sound like a question, and Kiriyuu began to tremble. "I know you're awake."

Oops, busted. Kiriyuu swerved over, looking up at him. "It's too hot, eto… and I've got cramp – right here, in my knee. Eto… you got any Deep Heat to help and - "

"Hand it over."

"E-Eh? What?"

"Hand the camera over."

_Eek! He knows!!_ "I-I don't know what you're talking about." She then cursed herself mentally. _I should've just handed him the camera… that would've kept me from a one way ticket to pain…. No, I must be stubborn!_

His eyebrow twitched, and Hibari slid off his bed, and walked menacingly towards her. She held up her covers, trembling and going 'eeek' again silently.

"W-What are you going to do?"

A few moments later of futile struggling and manhandling; Kiriyuu screamed bloody murder.

"Hibari…" She sobbed; okay, for now, she had to put on an act to get him off her trail. "… I didn't know you were a pervert…"

He stopped searching her, and let go of her immediately, frowning deeply – a part of his pride was torn. This was not amusing at all; he hadn't found the camera he was sure she had taken with her. Why she had a camera, he didn't know. Violating more of his privacy, probably.

"Hibari! You can't do that to girls, eto… They'll get the wrong idea! Plus, I'm especially ticklish – one of my weak points is right here - " She pointed to the sole of her big feet, wiggling her bare toes at him.

He smacked her foot away his face. "Shut up." He growled, after Kiriyuu grinned triumphantly to herself. Hibari was embarrassed – WHAT?! Hibari – embarrassed?! Noe wayz! (Well, at least she knew that he was still human)

"Hey."

She perked up at him, still grinning at her 'victory'. "What?"

_**SMACK!**_

"OWW!"

Okay, now they were even.

……………….

He hadn't been able to sleep after that, but had been able to see the sun rising behind his drawn curtain for the first time and wasn't pleased at all. Kiriyuu had been talking, that was why. She was talking in her sleep. She was dreaming, no, having a nightmare, and was now busy tossing and turning in her futon, grumbling loudly and anxiously.

"Noo… Pyramid Head… Must use trusty steel pipe… ack! It broke… eep… demon nurse… holding spoon… going to… stab me… bleed internally… Help!"

Deciding that he had enough from this troublesome sleeper, he whipped the covers off his body, and got off his bed. He noted that Kiriyuu looked uncomfortable, and was sweating terribly. She kicked around for a brief moment or two, then calmed down again, before flailing once more, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Gneh… graghh… argh… iiieeeyaa…." She croaked out, now practically imitating the butterfly stroke in the futon.

Hibari lifted her up from the futon, avoiding her flying fists of fury, and settled her down on his bed. Kiriyuu went deadly still and silent, looking at peace. Strange. He manoeuvred her back down on the futon again – and Kiriyuu began to struggle around. Again, he set her back on the bed; Kiriyuu calmed down once more, snoring silently.

Seeing a bizarre pattern of sleeping behaviour Kiriyuu displayed here; Hibari pulled the covers over her and then slipped into the futon on the floor himself. It really was quite uncomfortable there, and cold, too. But this was better than sleeping downstairs – and Hibari's own sleeping habits allowed him to get to sleep almost anywhere.

You know, sleeping on the school rooftop does expose him to the elements, like the rain, wind (okay, if it was too windy or rainy, he'd sleep indoors). Not just that, but sometimes, there'd be crickets and grasshoppers leaping into his hair and -

Kiriyuu then woke up after feeling a slight disturbance; not because the clock had ticked to 9am, but after her nostrils were bombarded and overwhelmed with the scent of Hibari – and she realised the hard surface she was on top of was none other than Hibari's bed. She didn't know how she got there; and looked up and around, before rolling to the edge of the bed, and peeked over. Yup, she guessed right – Hibari had taken her spot on the futon, his eyes closed, arms behind his head, supporting him comfortably.

She didn't know what this meant – he had woken up earlier on and thought he had been too harsh on her so he traded places with her? Or maybe he just liked the futon better? She didn't know.

Kiriyuu rammed her clenched knuckles into her mouth. Seeing Hibari look so vulnerable and at peace made her swoon. She pursed her lips for a moment, then got back up, rummaged around the surface of the bed for some reason, before grabbing Hibari's pillow, and his blanket, then silently slid out of Hibari's bed, and laid the pillow down beside Hibari's sleeping form.

She crawled in the futon beside Hibari and laid her head against the pillow, pulling the blanket over them both, and then carefully tucking her arm inside. She giggled silently to herself as she snuggled closer to him, finally finding peace. And, oh yeah, this was CHEESE!

Meanwhile, back outside, the front gate was being repeatedly knocked on, as the exterminator impatiently stood outside, waiting to be let in so he could check up on the infestation.

"Hello? Hibari-san?"

Suddenly, the window of Hibari's room was opened, and out popped a zombie-looking Kiriyuu. "Do you mind? Some people are trying to sleep! Take this, you evil oyaji-san!"

She disappeared away from the window, then came back, with an egg in her hand, and threw it at him.

...

Polystation 3 is a parody of Playstation 3 (I own one; it makes a lot of fan noise and contracts dust even if I take it out of its cover for 3 seconds). Sole Calibur 4 is a parody of the upcoming summer game, Soul Calibur 4, Violent Hill 5 – Silent Hill 5, and kingdom tarts is... eh... Kingdom Hearts xD


	11. Let's Stay Together, Itsumo

**Chapter 11**

_Let's Stay Together, itsumo_

Hibari felt his personal space being breached.

Worse still, there was someone _breathing_ on him, and drooling, too. Now who could that be? He cracked open his eyes and glared down at the girl who was sleeping on top of him. He put one hand on the top of her skull, and then peeled her off him that he thought he heard a sound that sounded similar to a piece of sticky tape being peeled off something – it was only until he also realised that she had thoroughly wrapped her arms around him too and was now digging her head into his chest. Oh, this girl was going to DIE. However, Kiriyuu sensed this skill-crane movement being used on her and then she too, opened her eyes as well – to come face to face with Hibari.

"Erh… hurnh?" She made out sleepily, and then she closed her eyes again. "Hibari. You look funny. You look like as if you need the toilet. You'd better go before you have an accident."

"OUCH!!" She was then sent pencil-rolling back onto the ground with a loud 'thump', landing not too gracefully. She winced, as Hibari got up, and stretched, before pulling back the curtain.

Kiriyuu inherited a vampire reflex during the night; she hissed like a spitting cat as the light flooded into the room and crawled under Hibari's bed, scuttling like a hermit crab. He actually liked her being there. Hmm, maybe he that could be another way of torturing her – yeah, by shoving her under his bed so he wouldn't have to see her for the next 24 hours.

"Eto… What time is it?" She asked.

"Midday." Crap, Hibari had never gotten up so late before. Damn her for letting him get carried away with his Polystation 3!

She eventually emerged out as Hibari began to pick up his daytime garments. "Hey, Hibari, wanna play video games again tonight?"

"No." He said, "I have something to do. If you've already forgotten, your room was swarming with ants last night."

"Eto… okie then." She stared at him for a little while, her head cocked to the side.

He glared at her.

"Oh, sorrie. Heehee." She giggled awkwardly, before leaving his room so he get could changed in private.

Hmm, that felt awkward for the both of them. Really awkward.

……….

Kiriyuu didn't have access to her clothes, so she just stayed dressed in her pyjamas. She checked the front door – strange, no note from the exterminator explaining why he wasn't here. She then checked the home phone. Apparently, the exterminator had left a voice mail message saying that he would return back later in the evening because Kiriyuu had thrown an egg at him from Hibari-san's window for disturbing their sleep. Her face went bright red, and when Hibari came into the living room, she did a double take at him – then leapt, pressing her back onto the wall.

She did a stunt from those _Spiderman_ movies against the wall, still staring back at him with wide eyes, and then scampered away from him, into the bathroom. Hibari, who had been watching her back; now wondered he had done to instigate this odd response from her. He heard the door slam and the bathroom lock twist shut.

"I egged the exterminator?!" She exclaimed to her reflection in shock. "I thought I was dreaming!"

The bathroom; it was the best place to think. Kiriyuu felt sick all of a sudden.

"What's happening to me?" She asked her reflection, who looked really tired and weary. "Why do I feel so strange? I already know that Hibari and I won't be together, so why am I so eager to get to know him more and stuff? And… and… he hates me anyway. I'm too stupid for him, too. And careless. Yeah… that's right. So careless and stupid."

She pulled at her skin, checked her gums, and groaned. "Look at you, Kiriyuu! You look awful. Look at what Hibari does to you. It's even worse than living in a prison. You're losing your healthy glow – all because of this guy? He's not even hot-hot hottiest of them all! No, McCreepy was Hot-Hot-Hottiest... he's nowhere near as McCreepy."

Why was she even thinking back to her old childhood obsessions? Well, she did ocasionally wonder what her first childhood crush was doing right about now... Maybe he already had a girlfriend. Hmph. She frowned at herself. Then she thought more, and her reflection seemed to brighten up a little. In fact, her reflection grinned. "What are you smiling about? Oh, I get it. I'm worried about what my family will say. They'll be checking up on me soon. It's almost been a month. What'll they say when they see Hibari alive and kicking? I'm doomed. I'm dead."

Then, her reflection's smirk dropped into a frown.

"No… _there's something you can still do_." She stormed back out of the bathroom, with some paper and a pen, before going to the living room and started writing her letter, back to her mother.

"Dear madre (mother), am currently at Disneyland Tokyo for a short while. Will see you soon. Kiriyuu." She scribbled quickly on the paper, as Hibari watched her from the side; she hadn't even noticed him. "There. That should do it." Then, she turned to him. "I'm going to send this off in the Post Office. Can I borrow one of your shirts?"

………..

Hibari didn't see Kiriyuu again for the remainder of the day after she departed to the Post Office with one of his shirts hanging off her. He stayed in the lounge, flipping through channels of the TV. There was usually nothing good on during the weekends. Normally, she would yell out loud in a stereotypical Italian accent 'Arrividerci' to him in the hallway before she left the house even though he never said anything back, or even listened to what she was saying usually, but this time, she didn't. She just walked past him, put on her shoes and… left.

The exterminator had finally ridden the ant problem; though he came back out of the room with just a binbag, and said that something was strange about the room. He said it felt empty and the atmosphere was different – and no, it wasn't haunted – Hibari waved this statement that didn't even make any sense to him and carried out the rest of the day as he usually did.

When it was dinnertime; he banged his tonfa against the countertop, making the bell sound that signalled 'Dinner' to Kiriyuu's ears. She never came with her doggie bowl. He left the kitchen and into the hallway; Kiriyuu wasn't back yet.

Kiriyuu missing dinner? That really was strange.

He went up to her bedroom and opened the door; all the ants were gone, he made note to make her wash out her own bedsheets – and open the window, too. However, he finally meant by what the exterminator said by 'something was strange and empty about the room'.

All of Kiriyuu's belongings were gone.

………..

There was a place in Namimori called Lover's Bridge, which overlooked another canal in the district.

It was a place where a lot of people who were not allowed to be with their loved ones committed suicide; the water's depth could rival the Loch Ness. For Kiriyuu's sake, she was supposed to be crossing the bridge to go to Namimori Port because she thought she should leave Namimori for good, but instead, opted to sit there, with her suitcase beside her.

She sighed heavily, then flicked off another dead ant off her suitcase, and focused on staring out at the deep, murky depths of the water down below. So far, she had enjoyed the peace and quiet while watching over the horizon, and she yawned, before sighing once again.

"It hurts to be in love." She said out loud.

"I agree." Said a very feminine voice, and Kiriyuu turned round, to face a foreign woman, with long, brown hair and a baby-blue strap top and matching pedal pushers and wedge sandals. She had a few tattoos on her arm; and Kiriyuu blinked blankly at her in return. "May I sit with you?" She asked.

Kiriyuu just continue to stare at the beautiful woman before her and nodded, pulling her suitcase away for the woman to sit down. She sat down beside her, and let her legs dangle over the ledge.

"So, what happened to you? You're awfully young to be in love, don't you think?" The woman sighed, too.

She gritted her teeth in response. "I don't want to admit that I'm in love."

"Why not?"

"Because the guy I have to like is a total jerkwad." Kiriyuu replied back unhappily, her thoughts dwindling back to Hibari; well, he wasn't really a jerk… just… well, she didn't know what it was called.

"I completely understand." The woman said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

There was a short silence. "Eto… So what do you know about love?" Kiriyuu suddenly asked her.

"I know that love is special. And no-one is perfect. Whoever we choose to be in love with is something we cannot control."

Kiriyuu nodded in agreement. "Yes, yes, that's very true."

The woman continued. "Then again, some people cannot choose who they are in love with. And some are also not allowed to be in love with those they do love - hence the reason for this bridge's name and reputation."

"I see."

"You're not from around here, are you?"

Kiriyuu blinked, then shook her head in response. "No, I'm from Italy. I'm going back."

"I'm from Italy, too. Why do you want to go back? It's quite nice here, don't you think?" The woman, smiling lightly.

"What? In Namimori? No, not really…"

"You've not been to the summer festival, have you?"

"No, I haven't."

"Well, there are still a few months until the festival, so you should stay until then. On the other hand, you're in time for the sakura-viewing."

"Sakura-viewing?"

"Yup, the sakura blossoms blooms at certain times each year, near Namimori Junior High. The trees will be ready by at least next week for viewing."

"What's the point in viewing when no-one will probably go with you?" Kiriyuu grumbled, thinking about Hibari – he wasn't really the kinds to like flowers, she thought – and maybe she would have to kowtow in front of him one million times and banging her head on the ground in progress until he'll come with her. She was still curious, however.

The woman smiled. "Just because the one you love isn't there, doesn't mean you can't go and see them for yourself. There's always hope in this world."

That was right; Kiriyuu had completely forgotten about Kyoko-chan and Tsuna – but they'd have their own friends, and they probably wouldn't ask her to come, anyway. She suddenly felt alone all over again. "Can I tell you something?"

"What?"

"… I can't be with him because it's impossible, and he doesn't seem to show it anyway. Besides, my family won't allow us to be together." She moaned at the older woman.

"Well, think about it this way. It's up to you. It's your choice. There are lots of choices for you here – take the ferry, and leave Namimori, never seeing him again and getting on with your life. Or you may jump, and end it all but you will never be able to know how much pain you inflict on him and your family, and the others who care about you. And then again, there is another way – facing your family. There is nothing right than to stand up for yourself, and who you want to be with."

Kiriyuu re-thought those words again and again. Then she smiled. "I think I know what to do now. Thanks for your advice… um…eto… I don't know your name?"

"My name is Bianchi. It was nice meeting you…"

"Kiriyuu. I'm Kiriyuu."

Bianchi shook her hand tightly. "If you ever get in trouble, I'll come and help you. Oh, and if he ever hurts you, I'll teach him a lesson."

"Thanks!"

"I should go now. Bye, Kiriyuu."

"Goodbye, Bianchi."

………….

Hibari had been searching for Kiriyuu for some time now; the sun was setting, and he was starting to get angry; Hibari realised that he had been easily irritated over the past few days since his cousin had come. Maybe this was what having a family was like. Then again, she wasn't exactly family – not blood-related, remember? Anyway, where was the stupid girl? It was just like last time – only this time, she wasn't at the bus stop. Eventually, he found a lead about a ginger girl sitting at the Lover's Bridge with another person somewhat during the afternoon. He left immediately, thinking, and believing, that she may be still there.

Kiriyuu was indeed still there, staring out at the horizon where the sun was setting. She had her suitcase sitting beside her, and she sighed, completely oblivious of Hibari's presence, until he cleared his throat. She did not look up at all, as if she had predicted that he would come.

"Where did you run away to? Didn't you hear the dinner bell?" He growled at her roughly.

"… So what?" She said, after a few moments of silence between the two. Kiriyuu sighed again. "And I'm not running away."

Oh really? Then what was with the suitcase? Dude, Kiriyuu had just proved to the world that Hibari really was the worst person/roommate to be living with.

"Hey, Hibari? I thought about some things."

Like what? Hibari couldn't care less about her girly, brainless thoughts and needs.

"…. I was thinking of leaving Namimori for good by using the ferry. But then realised that I had used up 200 yen previously for sweets and gunk, so I couldn't leave - I was 200 hundred yen short for a ticket."

And Hibari cared about this _why_?

"I thought about jumping, too. But I can swim. And there's still so much I wanted to do. Like sakura-viewing. And going to Disneyland."

He rolled his eyes. Like, what-evah. Her dramatic monologue was really starting to bore him. And what kind of problems did a girl like Kiriyuu had? Her life didn't seem bad. Well, maybe it went bad once she met Hibari. Hmm, that could be a reason for her running away.

"Even though there are some things about me which I won't be able to tell you about, Hibari, I will always look to the positive and face them. But… I'm still scared though… and I have to warn you. I'll get you dragged into it, and your life will be danger. My life will be in danger, too."

"And what kind of danger is that?"

"People. With guns. BIG guns. Don't worry, I've got a big gun, too. It's back in your house, under the mattress. So I'm going to fight. I'm going to fight and stand up for myself!"

Okay, he thought she was on cannabis again.

"Do you want to fight, Hibari? You'll get the chance to bite a lot of people to death."

She was abusing his phrase! The nerve!

"We're going back." He said, once he couldn't find any traces of white powder on her face. He grabbed her wrist and trying to drag her up.

She didn't budge though, and tried to pull her wrist away from him. "Then you go without me. I'm staying here for a bit longer. I quite like it here."

She liked it – here? Where countless of people had jumped off and ended their life? Here? There were probably hundreds of skeletons on the river's floor, but… oh well. She liked it here.

This side to Kiriyuu was different than usual; she seemed a lot more distant, sad, yet quite mature. But who cared about that? He certainly didn't. He watched her for a brief moment; Kiriyuu was staring intently at the horizon, her legs swinging around over the ledge. Hibari watched her for a few more seconds or so, before sitting himself down on the bridge's path beside her. She blinked at him in surprise, and then shrugged inwardly, smiling, and they sat there, watching the sun go down.

'_Let's stay together, itsumo.'_


	12. Musings of a Treefrog

This chapter revolves around the sakura-viewing chapter and starts to follow the canon manga from here on! And as far as I know, Tsuna and his friends challenged Hibari for the sakura-viewing spot...

**Chapter 12**

_Musings of a Treefrog_

He sent her packing to go grocery-shopping the next day. Even though they stayed together for half the evening yesterday, nothing else seemed to have changed between them despite the mutual master-servant relationship thing. Cousins? As if! He still had to use force to get her off her lazy butt - he smacked her up on the head, and she went out with a wheely trolley lagging behind her, cursing in Italian. Once she had wandered down the street and out of his view, Hibari entered her room – he also ordered her to clean it – and it was once again spotless. Although… would you really want to sleep in there again? Kiriyuu had no choice; occasionally finding the random ant carcass she always seemingly missed during her clean-up phase.

Kiriyuu's room was very bland. She had a lot of clothes thrown on the floor, and a few socks hanging from a homemade, indoor laundry line she made herself using string and paper pins. Her bed was unmade, as usual. Her textbooks, jotters and stationery were also littered on the floor along with countless sweet wrappers and crisp packets, and the suitcase was lying against the wall.

However, something was not right. The mattress seemed out of proportion; he was starting to think back to what she had said yesterday night.

_Don't worry, I've got a big gun, too. It's back in your house, under the mattress._

A gun?

_I've got a big gun. It's back in your house, under the mattress._

_It's under the mattress._

Hibari lifted her mattress up – there was nothing there.

He stood back up, frowning. Kiriyuu had been bluffing, or so he thought. How could he let the stupid girl lead him on like that? How could he have believed that? Damn it. He was getting weak.

He was starting to develop a weakness towards her!

No, it was a weakness of her.

…………

The gun was actually foldable, and stowed away safely inside Kiriyuu's high tech suitcase which Hibari still couldn't pry open no matter what kind of device he used with his tonfa – hidden hook, hidden chain - whatever. It just would not open to Hibari's whim.

Over the past few days, Kiriyuu noticed that the trees in Hibari's gardens were starting to bloom, and pink petals had started budding on the branches of the trees. In fact, some of the petals had even started to fall off, littering Hibari's gardens with a rather nice, pink dotted hue.

"Ooh!" She squealed, as she gaped at the petals fluttering around her in the breeze as if they were flying themselves. She tried to catch them, but they kept floating out of her hands. "Pretty flowers…"

Kiriyuu brushed a few strands of her hair behind her ear, even though they were billowing around gently in the light breeze, and tried to catch the petals again; leaping around the garden in her bare-feet, feeling the soft 'crunch' of spring, green grass underneath her as she sprang up and down, her outstretched arms attempted to clutch at soft, tiny petals that always eluded her grasp.

"What are you doing?" Hibari asked, leaning against the open doorway to the front lawn. He actually thought she was still on drugs.

Kiriyuu stopped, and turned to him. "I'm trying to catch the sakura blossoms."

"Those aren't sakura blossoms, they're just pink flowering trees."

"Oh. Did you grow them, Hibari?"

"……." His eyes narrowed. "No."

"Hmm, I thought so. I didn't think you were the gardening type." But she was. Kiriyuu actually liked gardening now after she joined the club. She resumed in trying to catch them again. Hibari was still watching her – somehow, he couldn't… he just couldn't take his eyes off her. Urk!

"Hey. Hibari?"

"What?"

"Someone told me that there was a special area for sakura-blossom viewing. Can you take me there?"

"No."

She stopped again. "What? Why not?"

"I intend to view them alone. I hate crowds."

Hmm, okay, so that was another thing Hibari despised, along with mingling, stupid people, herbivores, weaklings and her – possibly. "Hey! That's not fair…" She wailed.

"Well, if you're smart enough, you can find it yourself." And with that, he turned back round, and left, before calling over his shoulders; "Don't forget to do the laundry."

"……" Kiriyuu pursed her lips at him sourly.

**Half an hour later…**

"- What the hell did you do to my shirts?"

Hibari held up a pink shirt to her face after fishing it out from the washing machine; it was originally white, duh. Kiriyuu just stared innocently at him, before shrugging, scuffling at her feet.

"Don't play dumb. I found this, too."

Hibari then took out a pink bra from his other hand – and Kiriyuu screamed, her jaw dropping to the floor.

"Bra! NOOO!" She lunged at him and snatched it off him, stuffing it behind her back. "S-Sorry… I forgot I put it – um - there."

His eyebrow twitched fiercely; ALL of his shirts had been put in there previously for washing. He hadn't accounted Kiriyuu to add extra unnecessary item in with the laundry load. Okay, new mental note – next time, never ever order Kiriyuu to do his laundry ever again. Oh well, she was still going to get beat up for it anyway.

So Kiriyuu stood back out into the front garden with a swollen eye and bust lip, plus a bruised kneecap, holding the a big bucket weighing at least two tonnes filled with Hibari's pink shirts drenched in three-litres of hot, soapy water. She settled it down on the lawn, and sat on the porch, then resumed in her washing-up.

A brief moment passed, and a shirtless Hibari wearing nothing else but low-cut dark denims stalked past her into the kitchen with a towel draping around his neck, his hair wet, sopping and limp – no cowlicks this time; he had just come out from an afternoon shower.

Kiriyuu's _Hot-Hot-Hotties_-sense worked its magic. She perked up and stared at him.

Hibari always knew when people were staring at him; so he whipped around, glaring at her. She squeaked and turned back round, scrubbing furiously at the shirts. When Hibari turned back round, Kiriyuu looked back up again.

_Drool_, she thought. _Hibari really is yum. Hey, I wonder how many times I've said that now._

Suddenly, a few loud voices could be heard outside the Hibari walls. Kiriyuu stopped washing, looking up, then sighed, before continuing in her washing efforts. The voices did not go away. In fact, they gradually increased in volume – the voices consisted of high, nasally voices, too. One belonged to a baby, the other spoke a completely different language, and there was also a girl's voice as well.

It was not only Kiriyuu who could hear the voices. Hibari who came dropping down from the balcony above, landed shortly in front of Kiriyuu on the porch, who stared up at him with widened eyes and an open fish-mouth. She didn't know where he had come from, obviously.

So she asked.

"Eto… Where'd you come from?"

"Those people outside are disturbing my afternoon nap." He said instead.

"Did you fly?" An idiotic response. She looked up, now realising that he must have some special roof opening or something. "…. You have a balcony? How come I never knew that?"

"Tell them to go away." He added, completely ignoring her, "Or I'll kill you."

"Eek! O-Okie!" Kiriyuu immediately got back up and ran out to the front door, opening the front gate and leap-frogging outside.

It was a girl roughly her age, with her dark hair tightly swept back in a high and taut ponytail, struggling with two babies who were messing around with the outside of Hibari's gate – one with huge hair and a cowskin babysuit, and another which reminded Kiriyuu of a boiled egg that had yet to be cracked. Weirdos, basically. Namimori had such strange inhabitants… really. And Kiriyuu was an addition.

"U-Um… excuse me…"

The bickering pair of babies did not stop; it was the girl who did, however. "Yeah?" She perked up at Kiriyuu.

"I'm terribly sorry for asking this, but can you -_**gulp**_- please leave our premises?" Kiriyuu squeaked out.

The girl didn't look too happy at all. "Hey, it's a free country!"

"I-I know, it-it's just… um… my cousin won't… um… _like it_."

"Your cousin? Who are you? A butler?"

"U-Uh… no, not really, but… please can you leave?" Kiriyuu had always been terribly at telling people to piss off. "Please? He's going to kill me. Really. _PLEASE!_"

"… Well…" The girl's shoulders slumped, as she gaped at Kiriyuu's bleeding lip and black eye. "… He did that to you as punishment?" She pointed to her swollen eye.

"Um. Yeah?"

"Unbelievable! I'll teach him a lesson or so to abuse domestic servants! Girls help girls, you know!"

"NO!!" Kiriyuu yelled, wailing her arms around. "I-It's okay, really! I appreciate it, but… I'm going to be fine."

The girl looked at the nameplate outside the house. "Hibari residence? Oh… _Him_."

"You've heard of him, right? Hibari?"

She nodded, a bit nervously. "Okay, I'll go then. You're his cousin, right?"

Kiriyuu nodded in return. "I'm Kiriyuu."

They shook hands. "Miura Haru. It was nice meeting you. I hope I see you alive – I mean, see you next time…!?"

"… Yeah…."

"Wait – Kiriyuu? Are you the _Ottuso Kiriyuu_?"

"Huh? You know me?"

"Tsuna-kun mentioned your name – "

"You know Tsuna?"

"Know him? I **heart** him with all my heart!" Haru started to drool as she put her hand over her chest. She actually reminded Kiriyuu of herself whenever she drooled. Kiriyuu raised an eyebrow, and giggled.

"_Heart_? Oh. Heeheehee."

"You're in his class, right? Like Kyoko-chan?" Haru said, looking more enthusiastic.

Kiriyuu nodded. "Eto…. But I've never seen Haru-chan before in school."

"Oh, that's because I attend Midori Junior High."

"Ooh. Coolio."

"We're thinking of viewing the sakura tomorrow. You should come with us, Kiriyuu-chan, it'd be great!"

"…. Really? W-Wow! Ohmigosh! That's-That's…. I mean, thank you, Haru-chan! I sure will!"

"Great, we're meeting up at 1pm then, near Namimori High, but at the Central Park. There's also a spot in the Namimori Shrine, but it's not as good as the Park. Bring some food, too! It'll be a huge picnic!"

"Oh. Okie then, thank you again, Haru-chan."

"No prob!"

Suddenly egg-head baby started speaking in another language. Haru turned to the babies she was babysitting. "Huh? What is it, I-Pin?"

The baby with big hair and the cowsuit began snickering with loud, obnoxious childish laughter, grinning wickedly. "Haru, she said that the girl you're talking to looks like a treefrog! Kyahaha!"

_Treefrog? Oh, yeah? Well, this I-Pin looks like a boiled egg with arms and legs! A carbon copy of Humpty Dumpty!_ Kiriyuu thought bitterly, feeling murderous all of a sudden.

Haru looked at Kiriyuu, who the egghead, called I-Pin, was pointing at. "Oh, I-Pin, that was rude! Kiriyuu-chan does not look like a treefrog! I'm sorry, I-I guess we'll just leave then. Sorry about that. Come on, Lambo. Say goodbye to Kiriyuu-chan."

"Bye-bye, Treefrog-san!" Lambo yelled at Kiriyuu, while I-Pin muttered something in a language Kiriyuu didn't understand.

Hmph. Such weird people. And Kiriyuu looked like a treefrog? No way!? She marched back into the household, slamming the gate behind her. Hibari was back on top of the rooftop, sitting down on the tiles, reading a book. Hmph… that was really hurtful to her self-esteem regarding her looks.

"Hey. Hibari?" Kiriyuu yelled up at him. She realised that she ALWAYS said that to him – or the fact that that was how they started a conversation.

"What?"

"I got rid of the mingling."

"Good."

"Eto… What kind of school is Midori High?"

"It's for girls who are much smarter than you."

"……" Kiriyuu just trudged back under the roof and continued washing, frowning. "Hey. Hibari?" She yelled again.

There was a moment of hesitation. "WHAT?"

"…. Do I look like a treefrog?"

"… No."

Kiriyuu went red and stopped washing, her head craning up in surprise to the ceiling where Hibari should be.

He continued. "Now shut up and let me read my book in peace."

**The next day….**

Well, Hibari's shirts were finally de-pinked after hours and hours of relentless scrubbing in hot water and soap that left Kiriyuu's fingers practically raw and bleeding, peeling off to the very core of her finger bone. To be honest, it really was her whole fault this scenario had to happen. She really didn't understand why Hibari was wearing his school uniform on a day off. But apparently, bagging the best sakura-viewing spot meant he had to gather up his Disciplinary Committee and use them as Bouncers to shoo people off since he oh-so-hated crowds and mingling soooo much.

So Kiriyuu was left to wait until 1pm and then leave the house, while Hibari left quite a long time ago. She utilised this time in the house by herself to make some lunch to bring with her. Even if Tsuna, Haru and the others would be there, she thought she might as well bring something along, therefore, making some kind of 'contribution'.

She finished making the packing the last hamburger and risotto into a plastic container and sighed. "Okay, there goes my doggie basket."

Suddenly, before Kiriyuu could put her shoes on, the front door slid open, and Hibari shuffled in, dropping his bag on the floor. They stared at each other for a few moments.

"Eh? Hibari? What are you doing back so early?" She asked, clutching the picnic hamper tighter in her hand.

"Nothing really." He replied, taking off his school blazer and hanging it over the rack.

"Did you get to see the sakura, eto?"

"No."

"Huh?"

He turned to her tiredly. "I challenged Sawada Tsuna and his friends to a fight and lost, giving up the spot to view the sakura."

"… Eh?" Wow, Hibari admitting defeat to a fight against Tsuna so leisurely (what? Tsuna beat Hibari? Noe wayz!?) scared Kiriyuu a little bit. "…. I'm sorry to hear that."

"I don't need pity. Especially from you."

"I'm not pitying you."

Silence. Did she really have to say that out loud? Well, it was the truth, though…

Kiriyuu stared at her wristwatch – quarter to one already…. She looked back at Hibari. Then sighed, knowing that she would kick herself the next day for asking this - "… Want to see the sakura somewhere else then?"

"There'll be crowds."

"Eto… I'll get rid of them then."

"You?"

"Yeah, I'm a lot stronger than I look, you know."

"No, you're not."

"Well, I'll do something. I want to see the sakura too, you know! I really, really, really, really want to! That was another reason for coming to Japan." She said, frowning, putting her hands on her hips. "Do you want to come with me or not?"

………….

Hibari came. Kiriyuu remembered Haru previously mentioning another spot at the Shrine; it wasn't that bad. At least they had someplace to sit, and the trees provided shelter against the blazing hot sun. So far, they were the first people here. She called Kyoko, and told her that she wouldn't be able to go and see the sakura with them. Kiriyuu settled her basket down, and then looked around at the sakura, smiling widely as she inhaled the nice, flowering scent.

Hibari was on his knees all of a sudden as they neared the seating area. Of course! He'd just been infected earlier on with the Sakura Orientation Syndrome, courtesy of Dr Shamal who Kiriyuu still had yet to meet! Too bad Kiriyuu didn't know.

"Um, are you okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine." He barked at her angrily, and lifted himself to sit beside her on the bench, though he seemed to be sweating and twitching in a strange manner.

Kiriyuu shrugged anyway, and let Hibari take one of her homemade hamburgers which he actually seemed to be enjoying since he was chewing on it without saying a word. Kiriyuu just focused on watching the sakura with a small smile playing on her lips. Suddenly, they heard some footsteps come up, and she turned to Hibari, who frowned at her.

"You know what to do."

The girl swallowed, nodded resentfully, then got off her seat, and approached the couple nervously who had been wanting to see the sakura.

_Be assertive!_ She chanted in her mind. _Be assertive! Be assertive! Yes, that's right. Do it for yourself, do it for Hibari!_

"_**PISS OFF**_!" Kiriyuu yelled, as threateningly as she could, with a red-face and everything. So unlike Kiriyuu, but Hibari hated crowds… oh well… sigh.

The boyfriend protested first: "Hey, who the hell do you think you are – " Then he glimpsed up, saw Hibari, then screamed and ran away, following shortly with his girlfriend.

Kiriyuu blinked dumbly, and then turned back to Hibari. "It… worked. But I feel awful... waaahhh..."

"Idiot." Hibari yelled at her, as Kiriyuu trudged back beside him, plopping down on the seat and whining again.

...

Yeah, so, in the end, they watched the sakura together in a different spot. :)


	13. Dr Shamal's Women Only Clinic

**Chapter 13**

_Dr Shamal's Women-Only Clinic_

Hibari didn't go to school today because he still wasn't feeling any better after yesterday's sakura-viewing, so he stayed at home; this inevitably had a bad impact on his perfect school attendance record, but it couldn't be helped. Kusakabe-san would be standing in for today's School Council Meeting. Kiriyuu walked to school by herself today; it felt strange, with no Hibari beside her.

She felt lonely.

"WHAT? You and Hibari went to see the sakura together?" Tsuna's eyes had popped to the size of baseballs. He gave a sideways glance to Yamamoto and Gokudera, who just stared back at Kiriyuu in return.

"Well, we both wanted to see it, so we went together." She replied truthfully, squirming a little in her seat. "Besides, he looked pretty upset after losing to you, Tsuna-san."

At that point, Gokudera let out a hoot of laughter. "That's made my day!" He said, patting Kiriyuu's back. With that said, it seemed he liked Kiriyuu a lot more than he did previously.

Regardless, Tsuna focused back onto Kiriyuu. "But Hibari's allergic to sakura. He was affected by the Sakura Disorientation Syndrome by Dr Shamal. "

Now it was Kiriyuu who had her eyes widened to the size of baseballs. "W-WHAT?!" She yelped, so loud, the whole class had turned heads towards the group. She wasn't curious about this 'Dr Shamal' at all, however.

"You didn't know, Kiriyuu-chan?" Yamamoto asked.

She shook her head, now looking extremely guilty. "No wonder he was twitching like that…" She uttered guiltily, looking away from them.

Gokudera just doubled over with laughter even more.

"…. Eeeek… I made Hibari go through so much torture… I… I feel horrible …"

Tsuna and Yamamoto glanced at one another. "Kiriyuu-chan? Hibari never told you about his syndrome?" Tsuna said.

She shook her head once more. "He never mentioned anything. He just sat there beside me the entire time…"

Yamamoto grinned. "Kiriyuu-chan, I take it Hibari is rather fond of you then, eh?"

"Eh? N-No, Yama-san… I don't think so…"

"It's okay, Kiriyuu-chan, it's not your fault. You didn't know about Hibari's disease." Tsuna said, trying to reassure the pale-looking girl.

She smiled weakly at him. "T-Thanks, Tsuna-san…"

…………..

Hmm, so what she should to repay him for coming with her to see the sakura? After all, it was her who said she really, really, really, really wanted to see the sakura – and Hibari agreed to come with her. Now she truly felt bad. How could she not have noticed his strange behaviour? Oh yes, she was being ignorant and viewing the sakura without giving a sideways glance to see how Hibari was doing.

Once she came back home from school; Hibari was still in his bed, and craned his head round to her when he heard her open his door. His curtains were drawn and the room looked dank, despite the bright sunny intervals outside. A pack of painkillers and anti-allergens sat on his bedside table. He looked dreadful. Kiriyuu had never seen him look so awful before; and the guilt escalated.

"Hey… Hibari?" She squeaked at him, kneeling down beside his bed.

"What?" He croaked out. His voice sounded funny; maybe it was because his throat had swollen up.

"I'm sorry for making you come with me to see the sakura."

He turned back to his front, immersing himself in his covers. "I wanted to see them myself. It has nothing to do with you."

Kiriyuu looked to the side; it was her fault and he was saying that it wasn't? That was different. Completely different than what she had imagined him to do and say. She had previously imagined him to clench a tonfa and beat her up repeatedly while coughing and sneezing. But no, Hibari was eerily calm… and nice...

"I got you a cup of hot water." She said, placing the glass she had brought in with her on his desk. "Drink up while it's still hot."

"I want to rest." He said.

She nodded and instantly scrambled out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

So what could she do for Hibari to make him feel better? Make him a cup of tea instead? She ransacked the kitchen and couldn't find any teabags – that meant that Hibari was not a tea person. Coffee would only just make him worse. What about food? What kind of meal did you make a sick person? Too bad for Kiriyuu, all she knew how to make was hamburgers, tomato pasta and risotto. Not exactly good for someone who was unwell…

Next, she raked through Hibari's bookshelf, but found nothing about how to treat an ill person. The closets she could get were paragraphs from reference books about First-Aid, CPR, and what to do when aeroplanes were going to crash – such as scream and run around in circles? That was weird…

Angry at her incompetence, Kiriyuu picked up the phone and dialled Kyoko's number. Sure, he'd probably then pull her up for wasting two minutes of phone credit – but so what?

"Hello? Sasagawa residence."

It was a boy; Kiriyuu swallowed the lump down. Her phone mannerisms were pretty crap. "Um. Eto… is Kyoko-chan there?"

"Oh, is that you, Hana? Kyoko's gone out – "

"Actually, I'm Kiriyuu."

"Oh? Sorry!" The boy on the other end apologised. "I don't think we've met. I'm Ryohei, Kyoko's onii-san. She mentioned you."

"It's okay. Um, nice to meet you, Kyoko's nii-san. So Kyoko-chan's out? Oh… I see…"

"I can take a message."

"Well, can you tell her I want to know what's the best thing to make for a sick person, please?"

"Sick person? Is it an emergency? I can help."

"Eh? Really??"

"Sure, I'm not busy anyway."

"Okay, we can meet up at the Central Park."

"When?"

"Um. How about… Now?"

"Of course! I'll see you there, Kiriyuu-san!"

The phone went dead immediately. At least Kiriyuu was getting some help. She didn't bother to tidy her messy, wavy hair and got changed into her usual clothes. The Central Park was not very far from the house; and unfortunately for her – she forgot to ask how she would be able to recognize Kyoko's brother.

She tried to pick out from the bunch of people out on this sunny day in the park who would bear a resemblance to Kyoko's brother. Instead, a boy with a lawn-mowed head was approaching her, jogging lightly, wearing a snowy-white t-shirt, black shorts, jogging shoes and a sweatband. She blinked at this person – nah, that wasn't Kyoko's brother –

"Ohayou! I'm Kyoko's onii-san, Sasagawa Ryohei!!!!" He sounded very enthusiastic, punching the air with his bandaged fists.

Kiriyuu leapt, a bit taken back. "U-Uh… ? How did you recognize me?"

"I've seen you with Kyoko in school."

"Oh, I see!" Kiriyuu said, giggling lightly. She wondered how she couldn't think outside the box.

"Although…" His face went a bit pink as he looked at her from head to toe, and he scratched near his plaster-covered nose. "I didn't realise that you'd be this cute in person." He guffawed at her.

Kiriyuu just stared at him, dumbstruck, sweating a little bit. No-one had ever said anything like that to her face before. Not even Hibari – who she had actually wanted to hear that phrase from – but no, her dreams left to be…uh… dreams. If Hibari did say that – well, it'll be Armageddon, War of the Worlds, or the Day After Tomorrow. "U-Uh… Thank you?"

"Yoshaaa!!!! Okay, what is the emergency?!!!!?"

"Um… My cousin's sick."

"Is it bad??!!"

"Eto… I think so. He has Sakura Disorientation Syndrome. I dragged him to see the sakura by accident…" Kiriyuu said guiltily at him.

"I've never heard of that disease before!!!!" He exclaimed.

Kiriyuu whimpered meekly, "…A man named Dr Shamal infected him with it."

"Why would a doctor do that?!"

"I don't know."

"Maybe he is an **EVIL DOCTOR**?!" Ryohei yelled, a bit too loudly, so everyone in the park stared at the two.

"That's right!" Kiriyuu said however, clenching her fists, starting to get a bit fired up in progress. Now people stared at her.

"We should defeat him! **DEFEAT THE EVIL**!"

"Yeah! Defeat the – eh? Evil? Well, if you say so..."

"Kiriyuu-chan, we should find this man and sort him out!!!!!! Don't worry; I, Sasagawa Ryohei, will never let a damsel in distress get hurt. You are safe with me!!!"

"Um. Okay?"

"Soo… where should we start?"

"How about there?" Kiriyuu pointed to a certain shop she hadn't noticed before, along with the grocery store and bird store, which had a huge sign above the door with big lettering:

_Dr Shamal's Women-Only Clinic_

"That must be his clinic! His clinic... of **EVIL**!!" Ryohei yelled again. Well, who else would have a funky name like Shamal? "Let's go, Kiriyuu-chan!!!! We shall destroy the evil!!!!"

Kiriyuu grinned. Heh, she liked the way how this guy worked.

They crossed the street, and opened the door. The clinic was empty, however, and Kiriyuu and Ryohei glanced at each other, then at the counter, which was also seemingly empty. Ryohei, looking as apprehensive, quickly manoeuvred Kiriyuu behind him. Kiriyuu watched him, thinking that Kyoko had a nice brother, and wondered why Hibari wasn't like this.

Then suddenly, they heard something strange; someone was singing.

The words were slurred, no tune, out of tune; lyrics about a skylark and an idiot person. Then a cough, and finally, an inaudible groan coming from behind the counter, and then an outstretched, hairy hand appeared. The hairy hand clawed at the counter top, and up popped a man, swinging a half-empty bottle of alcohol in his other hand.

"Heh… You want to sing K too w' me? C'mon! No need to be shy! Just belt it out!"

"….. Uh…." Ryohei and Kiriyuu stared dumbly at him.

"**-hic-**… Oh, I see… Customers, right? Nurse…? Nurse? **-hic-** Where's she gone now? I just gave her a five minute break…Must've… run away again as usual **-hic- **Okay, who needs examining?" The man hiccupped again, grinning sleazily at them both.

Kiriyuu and Ryohei watched his red-face; the grin, his half-open eyes, and noticed an awful stench wafting in the air, all emitting from this smelly, dazed-looking, hadn't-shaved-for-more-than-two-centuries doctor.

"You're Dr Shamal?!" Kiriyuu and Ryohei asked in unison, bewilderment, shock, horror, the rest.

"**-hic- **Sure am… who wants teh know, ehehe..." Dr Shamal glanced at Kiriyuu, who looked positively afraid. **"- hic-** Hey, you're awfully cute… **-hic-** A bit like a treefrog, but I like any type of girl **-hic-**"

"Have you no shame!?!" Ryohei yelled, that his voice practically echoed around the empty room. "And you call yourself a Doctor, let alone being a man?!"

"Geez, you're an awfully loud bozo… **-hic-** Didn't ya read da sign? It's _**WOMEN ONLY**_. You're a dude fer chris' sake… **-hic-** Get out… "

Ryohei gritted his teeth, eyes flaring furiously. "I will protect Kiriyuu-chan from evil doctors like you, or my name won't be Sasagawa Ryohei, Captain of Namimori High's one and only Boxing Club!!!!"

Kiriyuu admired Ryohei's braveness. In fact, she could've sworn her eyes became a bit sparkly with the same admiration she held for Reborn-sama. Sparkle, sparkle.

Dr Shamal continued slurring. "Awright… enuff with all the riff-raff shouting… sheesh… whaddya two kids want? **-hic-** A condom? I got plenty **-hic-** Right here… ehehe…"

With that, Ryohei and Kiriyuu both went absolutely BRIGHT ZONKING RED in the face. Kiriyuu stepped away immediately to the side, and then Ryohei, who straightened himself after a few moments, began muttering incoherently to himself. Kiriyuu thought she was going to die on the spot at the moment. Instead, she stood in front of Ryohei, after clearing her throat, facing the drunk.

"NO! Urrk! I mean – err …I…we…uhh... C-Can I have the prescription for the Sakura Disorientation Disease, please?" Kiriyuu asked, very politely. She didn't want to provoke drunk people.

"**-Hic- **And why would you want that?" He asked, ramming a finger up one nostril.

Kiriyuu's eye twitched fiercely as he picked out a nasty booger and flicked it at her. "Um. My cousin has it – and suffering because of it. Please?"

"**-hic- **Is your cousin a _girl_?"

"Um. Yes?" She said, giving a sideways glance at Ryohei, who just blinked back.

"Liar." Dr Shamal said, grinning again.

"Huh?" Kiriyuu looked shocked. How did he know that she was talking about Hibari – who was definitely NOT a girl anyway.

"The Sakura Disorientation Syndrome is a disease which only I can inflict on people. Your cousin is that dude with the tonfas… what his name again? Durrgghhh…. Erm… lemme think… Hi… Hi… erm… no, wait, ah, I got it now! It's on the tip of my tongue… urm… Hikari Kyouya."

Well, it was close. Kiriyuu blinked.

"He happened to be the **only** person I happen to infect with recently." He replied, looking not-so-drunk. "And now you're his angry cousin wanting revenge on me, right? Ya know, this'll be probably the first time a chick has come all the way up here to find me… you're… -**hic**- special…"

"… No, no, you're wrong. My cousin… eh… _she_, er…Was born with it. She's been looking for a cure for a long time."

Dr Shamal blinked groggily at her. "…. Feh. Yeah **-hic- **right…"

"No, no, no, I'll bring her over. You wait right here! Ryo-nii-san, come with me!"

………….

Back in the house, Hibari was enjoying a tranquil sleep until someone pounced on top of him and literally blocked his air duct. He cracked his bloodshot eyes open; Kiriyuu was grinning at him crazily, with one twitching, in her hand, she was holding…. A black mini dress – that looked like it might fit Hibari. Hmmm.

"…What the hell…?" He grunted out croakily. "Get…. Off me…"

"HIBARI! Put this on! I'm going to take you to see a doctor!" She screamed as she tried to throw the dress over his head.

He shoved her away from him but she just came back up. "I'm fine." He grumbled.

"No! You must! Come on, I'm so worried about you, eto… even if the doctor I met only treats women… and this may be the only way... he seems to be the only one who can cure you! Come on!"

Hibari thought she was virtually impossible.

"Ryo-nii-san has even gone to get you a wig! Now hurry up and put the dress on!"

That was it. His eyelid flickered dangerously at her. And a few moments later, Kiriyuu was lying on the floor, battered, bloody and thoroughly beaten up.

…………

Kiriyuu, with ten thousand bruises and twenty broken bones, returned to the clinic while limping against Ryohei without Hibari. Shamal still wouldn't give her the cure.

"YOU EVIL, SEXIST DOCTOR!!" Kiriyuu yelled at him angrily, shaking a fist, until Ryohei dragged her back. "Lemme at him! Lemme at him! Evil doctor! What kind of doctor neglects his patients?! Where's your diploma?! I want to see how you graduated!! No, even better, I'll sue you! I'll sue the pants off you!"

"Well, **-hic-** You're quite feisty… and you have guts, yelling at me like that… Okay, okay… You've entertained me enough… I'll give it you, if you do something for me… **-hic-**"

"...And what's that?"

"Since you're that weasel-like, tonfa-wielding kid's cousin, I take it you know Sawada Tsuna?"

Ryohei and Kiriyuu nodded, not liking where this conversation seemed to be headed one bit.

"We-eee-eell… there's a woman living with all them hitmen called Bianchi – "

She ignored Ryohei's blank look as the word 'hitmen' entered the conversation. "Bianchi?!" Kiriyuu squawked, her mouth dropping. "…. You don't mean…"

"You know her? Hmm… You don't look like you're from around here… Then you too must be a hit – "

" – And you're… You're Trident Shamal?! That's why I thought your name was so familiar!" Kiriyuu exclaimed, in dismay and shock. But mostly shock. This dowdy, dandelion of a man was an assassin? And he was a womanising freak! A pervert! Oh well, it just goes to show how diverse the mafia world was…

"…**-Hic- **A fan, are you? I only give out autographs if you allow me to kiss you – "

"ARRGHH!"

"**-Hic-** That hurt." He said, frowning a little after Kiriyuu had screamed at the top of her lungs. "Alrigh', alrigh'. I'll give it to you if you allow me to touch yer – "

"EVIL!!!" Ryohei yelled accusingly again.

Another scream erupted from the back of Kiriyuu's throat and her arms flew over her chest. "No, Ryo-nii-san! Don't go near him!! He is known to be suffering from 111 contagious, infectious diseases!!" She screamed again.

Ryohei went deadly pale in response. "Eep?" He made a funny noise.

"Geez, you guys are giving me a headache…." Shamal slurred again.

Kiriyuu went back to the serious business again. "… What's the business you have with Bianchi?" She asked instead; she was actually starting to get a bit worried.

"…. Well, it goes like this…" Shamal said, grinning widely and ignobly again.

……………..

Kiriyuu said 'goodbye' to Ryohei, even though he was a really nice boy, Kiriyuu doubted that she would want to see him again – not after that embarrassing incident with a drunken, ignorant and sexist Doctor who just liked women. Instead of returning home, Kiriyuu followed Shamal's directions, and found Tsuna's house. She swallowed, wondering how she would be able to do this.

She knocked on the door bravely, and then – Bianchi's face emerged from the open door. She didn't realise that Bianchi was an assassin, too. Especially the 'Poison Scorpion', famed for her 'Poisonous Cooking'.

"… Kiriyuu?" She began, her eyes widening a little as she let go of the door.

The first thing Kiriyuu do was let out an estranged cry and went down on her knees in front of the foreign woman, grovelling at her with her arms out. "Bianchi-san! I'm so sorry to drag you into this, and ask you this, but…."

"… Kiriyuu, how do you know where I live?"

"… Shamal told me."

Bianchi's eyes narrowed immediately. "That man? How'd you know him?" Her voice was even more poisonous than her poison cooking at that rate.

"… Eto, I… I'll tell you later - Would you please go on a date with him?! Or-Or then he'd never give me the cure to Hibari's disease and Hibari will still be sick!"

Suddenly, Tsuna's head popped out from the doorway, followed by Reborn-sama, shortly. "Eh? Kiriyuu-chan? What're you doing here? And on your knees, too?"

Bianchi ignored Tsuna, and looked at Kiriyuu. She didn't know what to say. "… Kiriyuu… Is this the guy you like? This… Hibari?"

Kiriyuu's face went bright red; as Tsuna and Reborn gawked at each other –Reborn smiled in response.

"E-Eh… YES! I do like him! I admit it! Bianchi-san, please? Will you help me?" Kiriyuu pleaded derisorily, grabbing onto Bianchi's belt and smothering her face against her trouser leg. Pathetic, yes.

With that, Bianchi sighed. "… For your sake… and for the sake of love everywhere… then… yes."

……….

Surprisingly enough, Bianchi would never help Tsuna, but decided to help Kiriyuu out – all in the name of love – and agreed to go out with Shamal, for one date only. They were going to go to a famous Italian restaurant downtown.

And Kiriyuu thought she would get Hibari's cure…

That is, until Shamal touched Bianchi in an inappropriate area and she left approximately two seconds into the date, leaving Dr Shamal with a plate of poison-cooking o-bento box II in his face.

So unfortunately for Kiriyuu, she still didn't get the cure.


	14. The Dying Will of Ottuso Kiriyuu

Thanks for the reviews. As you may know, I have changed my penname for the time being. Quite a long chapter today. Enjoy!

**Chapter 14**

_Confessions of a Dying Hitman_

_(Aka The Chapter which reveals the Dying Will of Ottuso Kiriyuu)_

The next day, Hibari was well enough to go back to school. Even though Kiriyuu never got the cure, Hibari had heard about her struggles to cure him, along with a boy called Sasagawa Ryohei, who went with her to see this Dr Shamal – who asked Hibari if he had a sister two days ago back when he challenged Sawada Tsuna and his cronies for the sakura spot. Hibari wondered if this Dr Shamal had actually _done_ anything to Kiriyuu. So he asked. There was nothing wrong in asking, right?

"Did he do anything to you?"

"No. Nothing much."

"Good." Without another word, Hibari returned back down the corridor.

He pulled her out of her classroom just to ask her that?

Kiriyuu did a double take. _Good?_ What did Hibari mean by '_Good_'? she didn't know how to intercept this – in the 'good' way – that Hibari was asking if she was violated by the pervert doctor and when she said 'No' he was relieved to hear that? Or the bad way, which meant 'Who the hell in the right mind would violate you anyway?' She didn't know. Maybe she was over-reacting; remember, she was still his 'cousin' – so it was normal if family members were worried about each other, even if they weren't blood-related.

Kiriyuu felt miserable again as she opened the door and sat back down, and Kyoko approached her. "Kiriyuu-chan? Um, I must apologise for my onii-san…"

"Eh? What? No, it's okay, Ryohei-san was the most gentleman."

"…. But… sometimes he gets a bit too carried away…" Kyoko smiled helplessly.

"It's okay, really. He's a really nice guy!"

Kyoko flushed. "Ne, Kiriyuu-chan? Are you and Hibari-sempai _really_ close?" Kyoko then asked. "I don't mean to pry."

"Wha? Well… eto… we're not that close, I still don't know what his favourite colour is."

Kyoko giggled. "It's just that everyone is saying that you're going out with each other. They see you two walking to and from school together, and sharing lunch at the rooftops almost every day, too."

"EH?!"

"They also saw you two together at the sakura in the Shrine – is that why you couldn't make it to see it with us, Kiriyuu?"

"I-I'm sorry, Kyoko-chan."

"Ne, it's alright, Kiriyuu-chan. It's only reasonable to see the sakura with someone you like." At that point, Kyoko turned round to Tsuna – who had been ogling at her – Tsuna instantly perked up, squeaked and continued eating his Pop Tart-looking biscuit while hiding his nose in a book. Kiriyuu wondered what would happen if Kyoko suddenly threw her eraser at him and yelled 'Butt out of a girl's conversation!'.

Kiriyuu just shook her head. "So what if I like him? He doesn't like me."

"It's okay to show someone you like them. It doesn't matter if they don't like you – of course, I don't expect Kiriyuu-chan to be some kind of obsessive stalker freak with a really bad case of schizophrenia, ahaha…"

Kiriyuu stared dumbly at Kyoko, who cleared her throat. "W-What I really mean is… "

"Um, it's okay, Kyoko-chan. I get it, eto."

"It's a shame you didn't come here when it was Valentine's Day. It's the most liveliest day of school, aside from the Pole-Knocking contest day."

"Uh, yeah… Kyoko-chan… Do you know if Hibari got any chocolates?"

"I'm not sure."

"Hm…."

And Kiriyuu had another weird idea.

………….

Back at home, despite having a mountain of homework she had yet to finish, Kiriyuu slipped into Hibari's room – which he actually left unlocked now – and went on Hibari's computer without his consent and Googled a few recipes for chocolates. Yes, she was suddenly inspired to make some chocolates for Hibari. Kyoko was right; it didn't matter if the infatuation was one-sided, as long as Hibari knew, then it'd be fine, and Kiriyuu would've faced her fears. She wasn't afraid of rejection anymore.

Why she was, she wasn't so sure.

Maybe it was just because she had too many pixie stick dust on the way home and was currently feeling very very hyperrrrr. In fact, Kiriyuu thought she was in Hyper Overdrive mode. Whenever she was in that mode; she did a lot of things as if she were to die. It was like what the Dying Will bullet ignited in her, but it didn't require a bullet, or you actually dying, and it was also not as strong in effect; and it certainly didn't turn her into a loud, uncontrollable, pupil-less, anger-management required underwear-wearing lunatic charging at 100mph.

She took a few notes about the ingredients, and wrote quickly in shorthand all the instructions and then logged off, before skipping out of his room – bumping into Hibari.

"What were you – "

"Hieeieee! Don't hurt me, Hibari!" She screamed in his face and threw her arms in front of her like a shield – it was almost like a reflex action. Her brain just unconsciously made her do that nowadays.

He frowned. "If you ever want to use the computer again, just tell me."

Weird. Hibari was calm about it. And he was okay about it. He was okay about her going into his room, opening his computer, surfing the net with it while raking through more of Hibari's Polystation 3 games, and almost stumbling across his 'Diary'. Well, she thought it was his diary. Unfortunately, she didn't know what the word 'Agenda' meant.

She stared blankly at him; their staring match went on for a bit long, and Hibari eventually grabbed hold of her shoulders and moved her to the side, before stalking past her, into the living-room.

"Strange…" She murmured, before shrugging and leaping out of the front door afterwards. "TO THE SHOPPING MARKET, AWAY!"

…………

Kiriyuu used the money she earned from doing chores at home to make Hibari some chocolates. She was actually saving for Disneyland, but calculated that even if she did chores for a whole year, Hibari still wouldn't pay her enough for one ticket on the plane. How sad.

So she returned home with a packet of ready-to-heat Belgian milk chocolate and other caking, baking stuff, ranging from self-raising flour, baking powder, red food colouring, chocolate sprinkles, things you see adorning fancy fairy cakes and doughnut sprinkles, and tubs of caster sugar. She moved past Hibari and went into the kitchen.

Hibari's kitchen was missing a lot of utensils. First, he was missing a whisk, second, he was missing kitchen scales, third, he was missing a wooden spoon. That meant he had never baked a cake in his life. Or drank soup. Or made stew. How on earth did this guy live?

She found a way, and the kitchen was filled with a sweet smell lingering in the air, making Hibari look up from his book, and almost every bird living in the branches of his trees in the garden swerve their heads to direction of the kitchen. Five minutes later, the smell turned foul and made Hibari's eyes start to water, and almost every bird began to gag, so he barged into the kitchen, realising that she had now successfully yet unintentionally burnt the whole stove; plus, his kitchen was messy.

There were piles of broken eggs on his usual spotless-countertop, a few spilt grains of sugar and flour. Plus, a spatula, used to whisk some kind of mixture, was hanging off the countertop, dripping a thick, brown substance onto the floor.

"Hibari! Nooo! You're not supposed to see!" Kiriyuu screamed as she popped up in front of him from seemingly nowhere, trying to blockade his path further into the kitchen.

Her face was covered in flour and sprinkles, looking almost identical to a clown. He stepped to the left; she stepped in front of him. He went to the right; she followed him.

"What are you doing anyway?"

"It-It's for a science project!" She lied.

"You didn't ask for my help."

"… Eh?"

"You're tidying that up."

"Y-Yeah, I know."

Hibari turned round and away from the kitchen. Kiriyuu was left standing there, looking a bit silly. Her lip trembled at her burnt chocolates. Unfortunately for Kiriyuu, her cooking skills sucked, so she went to find Bianchi-san. As if her cooking skills were any better, though. Well, at least Kiriyuu would be making chocolates with a responsible adult – and hopefully not burn anymore stoves.

"Eto, I'm sorry about yesterday, Bianchi onee-san." Kiriyuu said as soon as Tsuna's door opened and Bianchi loomed over her. "It's okay if you don't forgive me."

Bianchi sighed. "I'm not angry at you, Kiriyuu-chan. I admire your love for Hibari that'd you even do a suicidal thing and ask me for help – but because it was you, Kiriyuu-chan, I didn't mind. I'm sorry that I couldn't get the cure for you. To compensate, I'll teach you everything I know about how to make chocolates for the one you love. I taught Haru-chan and Kyoko-chan, too."

"Hurray!"

Meanwhile, Tsuna, who had been eavesdropping from the hall, just shook his head. _Those two are insane. I'll never understand females…_

…………….

"It's perfect." Bianchi said, tilting her reading glasses further up over her eyes. The smell and poisonous aura it emitted seemed to unfazed her. "They look wonderful, Kiriyuu-chan. A true masterpiece."

Kiriyuu blinked at it with watering eyes, while Tsuna's eyes watered and he began clutching at his neck to gasp for air as soon as he came to see what the girls had made, and Reborn-sama had a breathing mask over his nose and mouth – even Leon had one. Kiriyuu just kept staring at it, while Bianchi seemed completely unaffected by the miasma of the chocolate gunk.

The 'chocolates' was a pile of squishy, green _thing _on the platter, having been cooking in the oven for almost an hour; it still looked uncooked, unappetising, and certainly un-edible. Wait, that's not a word… oh well, whatever.

In addition to the toxic-smelling green gas that it protruded into the air, a few flies had started buzzing towards it, too. Hmm, it just screamed 'NOT RIGHTEOUS' to Kiriyuu like a flashing neon-light.

"Um. Eto… Is that normal, Bianchi onee-san?" She asked, pointing to a fly, which had landed on the 'chocolate'.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The woman replied. "Go on, Kiriyuu. Take it and give it to Hibari. He would be very happy. It came from your heart and soul – you'd better tell him that."

This horrible-looking _thing_ came from Kiriyuu's heart and soul? She was pretty sure that she could've done better if she had put more effort before. She wouldn't be surprised if it suddenly grew two legs and began walking around, terrorising people. If Bianchi taught Haru and Kyoko how to make chocolates… was this what theirs looked like, too?

"Um. Okie." Kiriyuu said, as Bianchi handed her a cardboard box – the ones that usually held cakes and whatnot – although Bianchi pried the 'chocolate' off the platter with a crowbar and dumped the thing into the box. It made an odd squelching noise, and _**grunted**_.

"….That was strange." Bianchi muttered. "I've never seen the products of my recipes do that before."

Suddenly, Kiriyuu's knees began trembling as Bianchi sealed the box, sealing a few flies inside, too. She gaped up at Bianchi, and then shook her head. "I can't do it."

"What?"

"Bianchi onee-san, Tsuna-san, Reborn-sama. I can't do it." Kiriyuu swallowed, looking deathly pale. "I don't want to give it to Hibari."

_Of course you don't!_ Tsuna thought. _It'll kill him!_ "I-It's okay, Kiriyuu-chan. I'm pretty sure Hibari-san understands your feelings anyway." Tsuna suggested quickly, hoping to avoid this situation.

"No, of course he doesn't. Tsuna, don't say silly things." Bianchi said, completely ignoring Tsuna and placing a hand on Kiriyuu's shoulder. "Poor Kiriyuu-chan… I know how hard it is."

"B-Bianchi-nee-san… I'm scared." Kiriyuu then said, still trembling and sweating on the spot. "He'll reject the chocolates, and he'll then reject me."

Tsuna's jaw dropped. _That's not what I meant!_

"Nonsense." Bianchi replied, patting her shoulder reassuringly now. "I thought you said you didn't mind if you were rejected."

The girl swallowed, looking up at Bianchi. "Y-Yeah… e-eto, but that was before… now my pixie stick's run out… and I'm no longer in my hyper mode where I had no morals. I can't do it now. I can't possibly run up to Hibari with this and confess my heart out!"

"Then don't!" Tsuna interrupted. "Give him something else!"

"Something… else?" Kiriyuu repeated in a zombie trance. "Yes, yes, Tsuna, you're right…"

"I thought chocolates were a good idea." Reborn said, eyes twinkling – that meant he had something in his mind. A devious plan.

Tsuna realised instantly. "Noooo, Reborn!"

"Eh? Reborn-sama thought it was a good idea…? Then, I'll stick with the chocolates then… I guess? Eto, I still can't give these to him anyway! Even if they weren't chocolates… you understand what I mean?"

Bianchi did, Tsuna didn't.

"Maybe this will help you, then." Reborn held up a small, revolver gun from seemingly nowhere, pointing it directly to Kiriyuu's head.

"Reborn!" Tsuna squawked, waving his arms around in the air. "No – !"

"Die, Kiriyuu."

_**BANG!**_

As Kiriyuu's body fell limply to the floor, Tsuna's mouth had further dropped and he looked horrified at what Reborn had done, with Bianchi catching the box safely in her arms. "Kiriyuu-chan!" Tsuna yelled, as the girl lay there with a small hole in her forehead, a new trail of blood seeping down and over her face, motionless. "Kiriyuu!!"

But she couldn't hear him. She couldn't even blink.

_What a shame._

_I'm going to die._

_Hmm…. No pain?_

_Strange._

_Oh wait, here it comes._

_AAAAAARRGHHH! IT HURTSSSS!_

Ottuso Kiriyuu instantly regretted not having the guts to confess to Hibari Kyouya before she died.

**Somewhere else…**

Kiriyuu had been gone a long time; she ignored the Dinner Bell again, and Hibari frowned. She hadn't run away again, had she? No, her belongings were still in her room. Instead of hearing upcoming footsteps near the house, he heard someone furiously pounding on his front gate. He wondered who that could be. More sarcasm. Perhaps a starving, impatient Kiriyuu who still couldn't finish off her 'science project' in time and was now rushing to ask him? He also thought that Kiriyuu had brought the house keys with her. Maybe she lost them – AGAIN.

Hibari walked over evenly, after placing his tonfa down on the counter-top, and stepped out into the garden.

And when Hibari Kyouya would open that door, he would possibly get the biggest fright in his life which regarded a certain ginger-haired girl in her underpants with a flame burning on her forehead and probable demon, pupil-less eyes – but what were the odds of that happening, eh?

**And now…**

When Kiriyuu re-opened her eyes, Hibari was in right in front of her.

_I'm not dead? I'm sure Reborn-sama shot me dead on… _"What am I doing here?" She looked up, right and left. She was back at Hibari's house. Strange; something seemed very wrong. She certainly didn't recall going back home. "Eto… But I was at Tsuna-san's house."

He raised an eyebrow.

"What's going on?" She held up her hand. It was empty. "My chocolates?"

"Those were chocolates?"

Her face went red. "Um, yesh. They were for you. Eto… Since I didn't come here when it was Valentine's Day, and I was suddenly inspired to make chocolates. I didn't know what flavour you liked, so I asked Bianchi onee-san if she knew how to make orange chocolate and mint chocolate. She said she'd try to mix up all the flavours together. So she did, eto."

Silence. Kiriyuu then asked the dreaded question. "How did you find them?" She squeaked out nervously.

"I don't know. I hate chocolate anyway; I threw them in the bin because they were attracting flies." He replied bluntly.

Kiriyuu felt her heart sink deeper and deeper. "Oh. Yes, well… I thought that was strange. Wait – you hate chocolate?" She tried to hide her disappointment. Really – how could anyone hate chocolate?!

He nodded slightly. "It was still an effort. From you – which is rare."

She gawked up at him, he was… complimenting her?! O.O!!

"That wasn't a compliment."

Kiriyuu frowned again, feeling as if another ton of bricks had fallen on top of her head. She guessed she needed to be truthful with Hibari at least sometime in her life. It might as well be now – when she was feeling like dog crap contracted on someone's boot being smeared on the road – and she couldn't care less about what she said anymore.

"Hey. Hibari?"

"What?"

"What would you do if I told you that I wasn't actually your cousin, but a hitman from Italy who impersonated your cousin who you've never even seen before, wanting to kill you since Day 1 but not so much now because I think you're a really really nice person?"

Hibari – NICE?! What the - ??

He replied, without even hesitating. "I wouldn't care."

"EH? But why?" She squeaked, her mouth dropping as she gawked at him incredulously.

"Because I beat you up whenever I feel like it. And you never do anything back. You're a pushover. Tiny, insignificant and weak." He smirked.

"… Oh. That's true, I suppose." Kiriyuu looked miserable, however. Of course, he had thoroughly hurt her with his words! Was she really that weak and unimportant in his eyes? Hmph…

"Besides, I've had my suspicions."

"…. Uh…Really, y-you have?"

"Yes. You've been trying to kill me since you came here. But I don't know why you've stopped now." Hibari sounded eerily fine with that. You know, for the past few days, he'd been fine with whatever Kiriyuu had been doing, whether she pinked up more of his shirts with her bra by accident. That's because she was the one who had to de-pink them again, though.

"You knew all along?!" she still gaped at him like a fish.

"I had a rough idea. Why else would someone challenge another person to a game of Russian Roulette with real bullets?"

"… Um… And you're okie with that?"

"Yes. You can't beat me anyway. No matter what you do."

_Yeesh, he's an over-confident prat. _She pursed her lips sourly, then sighed. "That's very true. Besides, I like you – Oh, um, oops. I wasn't, like, um, supposed to say that, um, like, out loud… um…" There. She just said it – while trying to make it sound like an accident. That way, Hibari wouldn't hit her, or do whatever he usually did, like… um…. Hit her. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't as embarrassing and awkward as she thought it'd be.

He seemed relatively unfazed. "I know. You confessed to me 10 minutes ago just there in your underwear."

"WHAT?!" And then, Kiriyuu looked down at herself; and to her shock, horror and astonishment – she was just dressed in her vest and knickers, standing in front of Hibari.

"You came from nowhere, knocked on the door, and when I opened it, you yelled out loud how much you liked me that practically everyone who lives in Namimori knows now."

"I… I did… that…?" Kiriyuu looked like a mouse. Of course! Vongola's Dying Will bullet! Reborn-sama shot her with it!! And she-she… she ran out, just like that, in her underpants… found Hibari… and she… she did… to… he…he…

"I have to admit, you have a lot of courage to do that." He smirked again.

Kiriyuu's eye twitched feverishly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGHHH!"


	15. Longchamp and Mr Blobby

Longchamp is one of my favourite characters, so I have dedicated this chapter to him (lol).

Yes, this story does have a plot. I…uh… think. I don't think this chapter really has a plot though. I just had to stuff Longchamp somewhere.

**Chapter 15**

_Longchamp and Mr Blobby_

Well, that was perhaps the worse day ever. Nothing changed between Hibari and Kiriyuu, much to her disappointment. She wasn't exactly expecting her and Hibari to start going on dates or stuff though… but maybe it would've been nice…

As the days passed, Graduation finally happened. Well, it was sort of like Graduation. She was finally moving from First year to Second year in Namimori Junior High! The time at spent at school actually went on faster than she hoped... that meant she had spent roughly 2-3 months in Namimori without even realising. She never thought she would live the day of 'graduation', and experience it – but now she was! For her, it was the best day ever at school even though she hated school. In fact, she deliberately wore one of her family's embroidered headdresses to school, attracting the attention of thousands on the way. It was like a turban, only with a plastic figure of a tawny-coloured bird perched amongst a bundled of glued feathers and sequins. How she stuffed that in her suitcase; she wasn't so sure. Maybe that's why the hat looked a bit flat and squashed as she pulled it from under the rest of her stuff.

Hibari didn't walk with her to school today, and for a pretty good reason, too. He opted to arrive at school an hour early than usual. Anyway, he was supposed to move up one year, too, but Kiriyuu hacked into his school record and realised that he'd chosen whatever year he actually liked... so there may have been a chance that he would be in Kiriyuu's class... right? Not. Well, she hoped not. Gulp.

Having Hibari as a classmate was another nightmare she occasionally had at night aside from the one where she was stark naked in the streets for no reason. Argh!!

"Kiriyuu-chan, um... what's with the plastic chicken on your head?" Tsuna broke Kiriyuu out of her thoughts and turned to him. It was a chicken, right? They had all decided to meet up the day previously outside the bulletin board where all the names of students and their newly anointed classes would be posted up to see if everyone would be in the same class for the next year. He was staring at the weird, feathery thing perched atop her head. It looked pretty realistic – it wasn't a real chicken either… right?

"Eto, it's not a chicken, Tsunie-chan, it's a peacock." She giggled; the hat was too big for her. It kept falling over eyes and she had to keep holding it up.

Tsuna winced slightly at his new nickname. Sometimes, it'll be 'Sawa-chan' or 'Da-Da-chan', whatever. What she called him changed over a period of time.

"I thought peacocks were blue." Tsuna mumbled under his breath, as Kiriyuu turned back to the bulletin board, almost hitting him with one of her huge feathers. That thing was hazardous… it was amazing she hadn't been pulled up yet by any of the teachers for violation of the school's dress code.

"… I think the female peacocks are brown." She continued; the hat fell down and she lifted it back up - "This is the Giglio Nero traditional family headdress; it's usually worn to commemorate great conquest and accomplishment. It's an honour to wear this, even though it is a bit strange. I used to get bullied back then in Italy because I never had one, then, I saved up for years and finally wore this on my graduation day of Hitman Academy, too. All the girls were wearing them. The boy's peacock hats are actually blue, now that you mention it -- OOH! Hey, look, I'm in the same class as you, Tsunie-chan! Awesome!"

He laughed nervously in response as she finished her rant, still eyeing the hat warily as the feathers were slightly wavered in the air. "Ehehehe... that's... er...great. Eh." He didn't sound to enthusiastic.

Kiriyuu noticed. But she decided not to say anything. Instead, she pursed her lips, and slipped her hands into the pockets of her skirt. The rims of the hat fell over her eyes again. She left it that way.

" – Wait, you graduated from the Academy?"

She blushed. "Actually, I only got a reward for 2 years there. Nothing much…" She blinked; he was giving her a funny look. "Hey! Don't do that! You're thinking 'How come I couldn't kill Hibari then if I did 2 years in Hitmen HND', right? Well, eto, he's different and I don't want to kill him naymore; hitmen have rights, too! It's stated in the Provisional Curriculum, paragraphs 32 to 34, line 6, verse 5690 - "

"… I wonder if Kyoko's name is here too." Tsuna began instead in a zombie-state. "What's with all the roses by the way? I can't see my name…"

"Huh, oh… now that you mention it – again, Tsunie-chan, I didn't notice the roses before either." Kiriyuu mumbled, and Tsuna just sighed inwardly. How could she now? They're frickin' huge! As they pulled the roses away, Tsuna's name was revealed to be hidden under the roses; Kiriyuu pursed her lips again at the name which the roses were decorating. "... _Naito... Longchamp_?"

"What's a Longchamp?" Tsuna blurted out. He had never heard of a Longchamp before. Some kind of metaphorical term??

Kiriyuu went slightly pale, the hat fell over her eyes. She lifted it back up – but it slid back down. "…. Erm… Um... I... think I – "

"Oh! Sawada-chaaaan!"

At the sound of that strange voice; Tsuna and Kiriyuu both turned round to face the weird boy they had perhaps never seen before in their entire lives; well, for the girl's case, her hat had flopped back over her eyes for the moment as this unknown stranger waddled up to them. He was taller than the both of them, and was stretchy, thin, lanky, bendy-like. He had wild, hedgehog hair and his uniform looked like it could've seen better days. Kiriyuu finally whipped back up the hat. Her jaw then dropped, as he swarmed up to them, grinning madly.

"Hey, hey, Sawada-chan, we're in the same class. It's gotta be fate. Let's work hard together!"

Tsuna and Kiriyuu just stared at him.

"O-Oh, y-you were... really talking to... um, me?" Tsuna then stammered out, looking all flustered and sweaty. Another weird person was talking to him, aside from Kiriyuu beside him.

"Of course, Vongola's tenth leader." The strange boy replied, still grinning. It was amazing his lips could pull back like that.

Tsuna's jaw dropped this time. "What?! H-How do you – "

The strange boy was now staring hard at Kiriyuu who was now standing stiffly with the hat over her eyes, trying not to catch any unwanted attention. It didn't work. He pulled the hat back up. "A plastic chicken...? Orange hair... Treefrog smile...Y-You're...?! No way!! Kiriyuuuu!! I missed youuuuu!"

"No! I'm not Kiriyuu!" She screamed as she pulled the hat back over her eyes. "You've got the wrong person!!"

"No way! How could I forget you?!" He glomped her tightly before she could run for her life. She struggled feebly under his iron grip. "Tsunie! Help!"

"You know this guy?!" Tsuna squawked instead.

"Know him? I...I don't know what you're talking about!" She barked back at him, her face growing red.

Tsuna blinked. Hmm, very suspicious.

"Awww, you're so cruel! Kiriyuu-chaaaaan!" The boy pouted dangerously, his eyes growing wide and teary, even his grin disappeared, replaced with a wobbling lip.

"ARGH! Get off! You've mistaken me for someone else! There are plenty of people called Kiriyuu out there!" (Actually, there wasn't really) She tried to pull him off her. No use; he was like a magnet to a fridge door. Tsuna just watched in bemusement.

"Eh? No, you're Ottuso Kiriyuu! Definitely! I recognise that orange hair from anywhere!"

Kiriyuu began grumbling under her breath.

"You know him, Kiriyuu?" Tsuna asked.

She frowned, then shut her eyes, and opened them again. "... I… I, um… I dated him." Kiriyuu finally blurted out, rather angrily. Then she looked up, as if she was in deep thought – oh, that's right, she was flashbacking. She turned back to Tsuna. "Eto... I was about 10 that time and he was a transfer student in one of my hitman classes. It only lasted for about a week."

"Kiriyuu-chan always got at least fifth place in anything! She's sooooo smart!"

Tsuna glanced back at the girl. Kiriyuu – fifth place? The girl just went a bit red in response.

"Our relationship was too short-livedddd!! Lookie! I still got the picture of when we were together!" The strange boy protruded out his wallet, that was covered in plasters, bandages and chains. Just like him, only made out of leather and more compact-handy. "It's the one where we went to Legoland, scenic Italy!!"

She blanched immediately. "NO! Longchamp, no, please! Anything but that!! NOOOO!" Kiriyuu screamed bloody murder, trying to pry at his arm with the glossy, wallet-sized photo, but the picture was already thrust in front of Tsuna's face.

The strange boy, who was featured in the picture, was grinning, with less tattoos and shorter hair than he had now. He was standing beside a mop. Well, it looked like one anyway. The person's orange hair covered most of the face, and they had thick, caveman-like eyebrows, thin lips like Kiriyuu's, and dull, dull green eyes. Plus, thick, black-rimmed spectacles sat over her nose. A visible orange moustache hung above her top lip. What the - ?! She looked like that Captain Caveman! Tsuna's jaw dropped again.

"But that's a _**man**_!!" Tsuna stated, and Kiriyuu went even redder. "…. R-Right?!"

"No, Tsunie... that really is…uh… _cough_… me." Kiriyuu grumbled, looking away bitterly with her eyes closed, a stiff upper lip. "... About 4 years ago..."

"EH?!" Tsuna looked at the photo again, then at Kiriyuu. Then back at the photo. He looked back at her; she cocked her head to her side. She was so defined now, with a lean jawline, carefully-combed hair, thin, subtle eyebrows, rosy lips and pink cheeks. No moustache. Not even a Captain Caveman. Not exactly pretty, but still pretty cute, Tsuna thought.

"But... You look so... pretty…. Now. You changed. Dramatically." Tsuna then went a bit dazed on the spot, dizzy, with a small glob of drool hanging from the corner of his bottom lip. _Can things like these even happen in real-life?_ "You didn't have plastic surgery?"

"NO!! I am one hundred percent organic and real, FYI!!" She screamed at him with clenched fists flying in all sorts of direction, her hat almost falling off her head.

"Eeek! O-Okay! I believe you!" He squeaked, flinging his arms over his head.

Kiriyuu went slightly pink, then she grinned at him. "You're bedazzled by my alarming beauty now then, eh? Hehehe. Wish you looked like me now, eh? Well… It's a s-e-c-r-e-t." She whipped back round to the weird boy as he took back his photo. "Eto... I can't believe you keep such an embarrassing photo of me, Longchamp." She grunted out at him. "Give me the copies you made so I can burn them!!"

"ARE YOU MAD?! You were so beautiful back then! I still can't believe you dumped me for that other guy with the funny hair..." He began to sob, and Kiriyuu stepped back after brushing her hand off his shoulder. "Was I… Was I not pretty enough for you?"

She roared at him instead, "I refuse to answer that question!! And if you show anyone else that photo I'm going to tear that tattoo off your skin with my own bare hands!!" She screamed at him threateningly, whilst pointing to a random tattoo on his arm.

He giggled despite her efforts. "Nyaaaah, that's what I liked about, Kiriyuu-chaaaan, you showed so much manliness in such a delicate beauty like yourself!"

_He's right. I've never seen Kiriyuu so worked up and ferocious before. –Gulp- Never underestimate the opposite sex, or Kiriyuu in general, I suppose. _Tsuna thought to himself.

Kiriyuu clenched her fist again. "GrrrRRrrrr... Remember what the psychologist said, Kiriyuu... relax... and breathe..." Her face went less red than it had been.

Tsuna's jaw further dropped. _This is not happening?!_

"Kyaaah, Kiriyuu-chan, it's only been 4 years and you've changed so much. Your hair is still the same but you look so different now! I liked it better when you had braces and those bushy eyebrows!!" The strange boy cried, waving his arms around as soon as he let go of her.

Kiriyuu went bright red and cleared her throat. Time for a normal conversation once in a while. Then again, talking to Longchamp was never normal. He never talked about normal things. "... So…. uh, how've you been anyway, Longchamp?"

"I've been great! I've been wanting to meet the new Vongola boss." Longchamp thoroughly shook Tsuna's hand that his bag practically lobbed off his shoulders. "I'm the Tomaso Family's eighth generation leader-to-be, Naito Longchamp. Pleased to meet youuu, Vongola!"

Tsuna immediately went into defence state. "W-What are you t-talking about? I don't know anything about..."

Kiriyuu sighed. "Tsunie, he knows. We all know." She said. The boy sighed, and Longchamp wrapped an arm around him tightly. "Eto, I'm going to find Hibari and show him my new headdress. See you guys later."

"Nyah? No, stay with us, Kiriyuu-chan!" Longchamp sang, his arms outstretching to her. "I want to talk to you more! What happened to the guy with funny hair? And his weirdo friends?"

Guy with funny hair? Weirdo friends? What kind of people did Kiriyuu know? Tsuna blinked, as Kiriyuu paled instantaneously. Sweating, her eyes darted left to right, and then finally landed behind Longchamp and Tsuna. "Look over there! It's **Mr Blobby**!" She screamed as she pointed behind them.

"WHERE?!" Longchamp cried, turning round. "MR BLOBBEEEE! You are my idol! Eh?! Where's Mr Blobby?"

Tsuna just continued blinking. Kiriyuu used this chance to run away.

"I believe you've just been tricked by that girl into looking like a pompous idiot, Longchamp-kun." The guy with the weird hat (who is one of his family's member?) standing with the other two said, pointing to Kiriyuu who was half a mile from them already.

Longchamp pouted fiercely. "She used my weakness to distract me and run away. She's so cruel to me... why is she so cruel to me, Mungusta?? Do I smell bad or something?"

The man in the hat, named Mungusta, who Tsuna mistook for a bellboy or something, just shrugged.

_No, it's because you're weird! _Tsuna thought. "W-Wait, Kiriyuu! Don't leave me alone with this guy!" Tsuna yelped, still struggling in Longchamp's hold.

* * *

I don't own Mr Blobby. If you're interested in finding out who Mr Blobby is, just Google him. Personally, I really hate him.

Also, he's kinda freaky. –Shudders-


	16. Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Sorry, this chapter is part of the manga canon, but I had to change it a bit… Hmm, this chapter does not seem to have much plot either. It's pretty random. (Don't own the song by Fall Out Boy either)

**Chapter 16**

_Thnks Fr Th Mmrs, Longchamp_

Perhaps leaving Longchamp with his creepy family members back that day at the bulletin board with Tsuna and the rest wasn't a good idea after all…. Because now Tsuna and Longchamp had become 'friends'. Well, sort of. The only thing interesting in school these days was realising that different species of human did in fact, exist somewhere in Modern Japan. The primary example being Terumi, Longchamp's new girlfriend who he showed Kiriyuu and tried to get into becoming best girl friends. Kiriyuu didn't know someone could be so big-boned like that. She didn't say anything about Terumi's looks, since she herself looked very strange 4 years ago… plus, they went out with Longchamp. He was such a playboy.

Now Kiriyuu was on her way to meet with Tsuna and the rest to go to Longchamp's new house in Namimori. Reborn was the one who decided it. Even though she wasn't 100 percent happy with going, she thought it might be an interesting experience. As Kiriyuu rounded the corner, she stopped.

There was a little boy standing in a desolate-looking alleyway. Kiriyuu stared at him; he had short, soft auburn hair and a little smile plastered over his face – um… he was lost? There goes Kiriyuu's observational skills. He was holding a book the size of Namimori Yellow pages. What was strange was that he had a scarf on. In this weather?? So strange...

She failed to notice that he was levitating slightly.

"Eto, chibi-kun, are you lost?" Kiriyuu asked out loud, approaching the boy.

He immediately stopped in what he was doing and dropped back onto the ground. "Iie, nee-san, I was just practising. Anou… I'll be going now." He smiled at her.

Kiriyuu's maternal instincts kicked in. she stared at her with her mouth slightly open, her eyes turned to little love-hearts, and she began to tremble slightly. The little boy stepped back… Good idea.

"Eto, you're so cute!!" She eventually exclaimed, gushing in a silly manner. She hugged him tightly in her arms. "What's your name? Would you like onee-san to take you home? There are plenty of nasty people out there. Eto, Kiriyuu knows a lot about nasty people! She'll beat them up for you if they bully you!" She declared, clenching her fists and holding them up in a battle stance.

"… Tsuna-nii will protect Futa!" He chirped instead.

Kiriyuu squeaked with delight. "Squeee, you're so adorable! Wait – Tsuna? Sawada Tsuna, you mean?"

"You know Tsuna-nii?" His eyes lit up.

"Eto, I'm in his class... you're part of Vongola too?"

He shook his head, but then shrugged. "I rank things. I can rank you too, onee-san. I'm Futa. You're... Kiriyuu, right?"

She nodded. "Kiriyuu Ottuso from the Giglio Nero, at your service, Futa-kun. I'll protect you from nasty people too!"

He giggled, and Kiriyuu squealed again. He then closed his eyes. "Kiriyuu-onee-san, I'll rank you now if you want. It's fun, hehe."

"Rank? Well, I'm actually 50 minutes early, so… yeah! You can rank me! Um… How do you do that? Are you psychic??"

"Eh... ehehe... something like that."

"Oh, wow! Blast me with psychic, psycho power then! I want some too!" She sat back on the dirty street ground holding her arms out, as Futa placed his big book down and stood back on his spot, looked up at the sky, and then – he blanked out slightly – and opened his eyes again. Only they were more glazed. Kiriyuu felt herself floating slightly. She began to flail helplessly as her butt lifted from the ground and into the air a tad bit. "F-Futa?" He was doing this? No way! This was so cool!!

"... Ottuso Kiriyuu from the Giglio Nero famiglia... is ranked 29,451 out of 34,567 people to fail their Hitman Academy Entry exam more than two times..."

Kiriyuu clapped madly. "That's so true! Tell me more!"

"... She is also ranked 2nd out of the entire Giglio Nero famiglia for lack of ambition... and for that, she was perfectly suitable for any job they wanted her to do because they know she will not betray them or conceive any conspiracies..."

Kiriyuu stopped. "... What...? Who's first then?"

"... She holds 6th place in 99,657 people who can be most trusted amongst the mafia world."

The girl shrugged casually. "... Well, at least I'm 6th place."

"… Therefore is easily taken advantage of by those with bad intentions."

"Oh."

Futa continued. "... Out of the 60,732 Sniper rifle handlers out there in the mafia world... Kiriyuu-nee is ranked 19th most deadly accurate when aiming."

"Aww, you're making me blush!" Kiriyuu squealed, her hands clasped over her cheek. _I really am that good in aiming? Yay! I'm useful for once!_

"Kiriyuu-nee is ranked 3rd out of most teenage girls around her age in Namimori to have a lot of problems and insecurities, especially when concerning friends..."

She looked down. "Oh." She muttered out again.

"Kiriyuu-nee love's ranking is... is... Number one is..."

"Futa? Kiriyuu?"

Futa stopped immediately, Kiriyuu landed back on her front clumsily on the dirty ground with her butt in the air. The two on the ground both looked up; it was Tsuna, carrying two grocery bags.

"Tsuna-nii!" Futa cried, grinning. "I was just ranking Kiri-nee-chan!"

He smiled helplessly in return as Kiriyuu flashed him a toothy grin. "Futa, there are bad people after you! Let's go back. You too, Kiriyuu."

"Okie! Hey, we're still going to Longchamp's house, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Kiriyuu, is that okay with you? I mean, you dated him and – "

She giggled, as they began walking down the road back to Tsuna's house. "It's okay. I'm over him anyway. He's got tonnes of girlfriends anyway."Suddenly, Kiriyuu felt a tug on the rims of her top. She glanced down. "Futa? What's wrong?"

"Anou… your love ranking, would you like to hear what I had to say, Kiri-nee?"

"Sure!"

_Love rank?_ Tsuna thought. _Interesting… _

"... Well... Kiriyuu-nee's love rank... Hibari Kyouya is no.1..." Futa mumbled out, then looked up, staring right back into Kiriyuu with those puppy-dog eyes. She went rather googly-eyed. "You… like him too, Kiri-nee?"

"E-EH?!"

Tsuna and Kiriyuu went bright red at that statement, then she turned to him. "Why are you blushing?"

"Eh? Oh, I… I dunno…." Tsuna mumbled out awkwardly, and then began muttering incoherently under his breath.

"Well… um… that's another reason why I'm going with you guys to visit Longchamp. I don't think he really got the message that we've broken up, and the fact that I like Hibari now." Kiriyuu replied. "It's probably about time I spoke to him properly about this."

**And 50 minutes later…**

The visit to Longchamp's house turned into an annihilation plot to get rid of the Tomaso famiglia, courtesy of Reborn, of course. Gokudera was up for it. Kiriyuu wasn't entirely sure, but seeing how it was Reborn-sama who suggested it; she wasn't up for defying him in any way. So she went along with it. Besides, it was probably time Longchamp was put out of his misery, as displayed by the Desolation bullet.

"Kyaaah?! Kiriyuu-chan is here too?! That's even better!" Longchamp cried out, waggling his arms in the air again.

She grumbled under her breath, crossing he arms over her chest as they lumbered in within the walls of Longchamp mansion. The introduction to his home wasn't exactly a very welcoming one. First, their family was suffering an internal dispute, Reborn chucked Lambo twenty feet into the air, Haru became Tsuna's reluctant girlfriend for today, and now, they were in Longchamp's room.

It was filled with crap. Literally. Kiriyuu remembered why it didn't last with her and Longchamp – it was because she couldn't stand Longchamp's habits. He hoarded too much junk and she didn't like it. She had never seen his room before, but his dorm room back at the Academy 4 years ago was announced to students as 'forbidden' to enter because of a weird smell, and RIY purposes (Repair-It-Yourself). His room smelt bad despite the fact that his door was wide open. Some rice-wallpaper was peeling from the musty walls. The carpet was damp with some sticky sauce or whatever was leaking from that cardboard box in a shady corner.

Kiriyuu's eye twitched ferociously as the others intook the sight of his room with equally stunned, horrified responses, although not as bad as Kiriyuu.

"Kiriyuu-chan? what's wrong? You look pale." Yamamoto said, glimpsing at the silent girl.

She trembled slightly. "Must…. Clean…"

"…Huh?"

Kiriyuu whipped her head up to Yamamoto. "I MUST CLEAN, GODDAMNIT!" And she took off running back down the hall, back to where the toilet they had passed previously, and came back up with a mop and wet bucket. Everyone stared at her, while Longchamp grinned.

"What's wrong with Kiriyuu?" Tsuna asked worriedly.

"Kiriyuu-chan has always been a clean person!" Longchamp cried out proudly. "We've known each other for so long that I know all about her mentally-challenging disorders!"

Kiriyuu had a cleaning-obsessive-compulsive-disorder?? Tsuna glanced at Reborn, more anxiously now. Reborn just shrugged.

"I thought you only dated for a week. I'm pretty sure that people don't tell other people their deepest, darkest secrets until after they at least know each other for a long time." Gokudera grunted out. Yeah, everyone knew about Kiriyuu and Longchamp by now… much to Kiriyuu's displeasure.

Kiriyuu now actually didn't know whether Gokudera was on her side or not for saying that.

"Everyone at the Academy knew she couldn't take dirty, minging stuff!" He replied instead. Suddenly, he blanched, and looked around his room. Then he scratched at his head awkwardly, and giggled. "Oh. Heehee."

"Kiriyuu! Stop!" Haru grabbed her arm before she could start. "It's okay! We won't be here for long! Just tolerate it!"

"Yeah! Tolerate it like the way Lambo does!" Tsuna yelled out, while Yamamoto just chuckled helplessly at the situation.

Kiriyuu stopped, breathing heavily. "…To…lerate…?" She mumbled out unsurely, then – "Waaah… Tolerate!"

The tour around Longchamp's room continued, with Kiriyuu clinging to Haru's arm while scoping around anxiously. They discovered many things; Longchamp's new girlfriend was buried under the mess, Yamamoto was a fan of Kikumomo Sakura, who Kiriyuu officially deemed as a slut for posing for such a raunchy-looking poster in Longchamp's room, which Longchamp himself declared out loud that it was used to hide the secret place where he kept his super porn magazines. It was not so secret now; Haru had to pry Lambo away from the poster, and then she punched Longchamp.

Kiriyuu stared shocked at the girl, as she ventured back to Kiriyuu's side. "Um… good punch." Kiriyuu mumbled out to Haru who showed her a thumbs up of victory.

"I don't get you, Kiriyuu-chan. He's such an annoying, obnoxious guy who has no shame or dignity. How can you put up with someone like that?"

"…." Kiriyuu looked to the side. "… I don't really know."

Haru let out a short sigh, then - "Hey, Kiriyuu-chan." Haru began in a low whisper and pulled her away from the rest; the group of Longchamp tourists today had only consisted of Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Lambo, I-Pin, Reborn, Haru, and Kiriyuu who were now marvelling around. "… I have to tell you something. It's top-secret."

"What?" Kiriyuu didn't know if Haru or Yamamoto knew what would really be going on afterwards once Operation Destroy the Tomaso' began, especially when Kiriyuu would brandish her gun out and start shooting holes in the building.

"I-Pin's got a HUUUUUUGE crush on Hibari, you know that?"

Kiriyuu stiffened immediately. "HUH?!"

"Just thought you should know. Love should never include rivals or the 'third person'. It's only fair, right? I wouldn't like it if Tsuna-kun was liked by someone else!"

Kiriyuu then thought about Kyoko. Uh…. they were secretly rivals for Tsuna's love then?? She looked down, scratching at her head. "… Well, yeah, I guess. But… I can't do anything about I-Pin. I won't do anything to her, either."

Yamamoto looked up thoughtfully. "Hey, Longchamp-kun, if you don't mind me asking… why did you guys break up anyway? You both seem to get along very well!"

Kiriyuu harrumphed in disagreement.

"We didn't break up!" Longchamp yelled out loud instead.

Silence.

Thank god Sanappi or whatever-her-name-was had gone to her part-time job.

Kiriyuu swallowed. "Eto, we're not together anymore, Longchamp."

He swayed on the spot, hands clasped together. "I don't remember us ever arguing! We were like egg on toast!"

She frowned deeply. "Look, this happened 4 years ago and I don't want to bring it up again. I thought you had come to terms with our… um… separation."

Hmm, that was right; Tsuna still had no idea who dumped who.

Longchamp continued bantering at her from halfway across his room much to Kiriyuu's discontentment. "Nyah, sometimes old feelings stir up again, ya know? Besides, I still got plenty of stuff for us to reminisce over!"

What was supposed to be a common visit to a friend's house became an infuriating, overly-annoying soap opera-like episode about rekindling relationships and settling aside differences, which Kiriyuu did not want. At all.

Longchamp was rifling through his stuff again. "Look! Kiriyuu! Our old, matching couple t-shirts! It's still got our names preserved perfectly! What's that smell? Mayonnaise?! Eh, never mind… Remember we used to wear them whenever we went out so we'd look like a pair?! And I even saved your caricature by that dodgy artist by the seaside!!"

Gokudera was sniggering at a small, A4-sized canvas, and glanced back at Kiriyuu, then burst into a hoot of raucous laughter. The caricature, no doubt. Tsuna elbowed him, and shook his head once Gokudera looked over to see what Juudaime wanted.

But she still cringed visibly, and clenched her fists. _Tolerate…._

Longchamp wasn't finished yet - "Wow! Even the ice lolly stick that had the ice lolly we shared together is here too!"

Tsuna felt a bit dizzy; the room began to spin because of all the junk surrounding him. _It's __**his**__ room! He's supposed to know what he keeps and what's in it– he's just doing this to get on Kiriyuu's nerves!_

Meanwhile, the girl was sweating badly, her hands getting cold and clammy. "… Tolerate…." She was really starting to sound like Lambo now.

"I forgot to show you what I stole from Kiriyuu's PE changing room locker as a remembrance present for all our glorious times together!" Longchamp then fished up a huge shoe and waved it insanely in the air. "Kiriyuu's old, right-foot sneaker! They're size 42!"

Kiriyuu let out an estranged wail. "HARU-CHAN! Make him stop! Make him stop….!"

Haru glared at Longchamp and cracked her knuckles again.

Yamamoto just smiled weakly at her in the corner as Haru began chasing Longchamp around. "Oh? What's this?" He picked up a discarded photograph on the floor. "What's that orange and pink thing?"

"Oh, that?" Longchamp preened, and Haru instantly began to hit him repeatedly over the head with her fists. "Owie! Sawada-chan – your girlfriend is – ow! Sure can pack a punch! Ahem – that photo -- It's Kiriyuu with Mr Blobby at the Christmas Castle!!"

Yamamoto blinked incredulously. "… But that's a **man **– "

That felt like a stab in the back. It was okay with Tsuna to say that, but now… Yamamoto? Her most trusted friend who would always look after her?? She didn't blame him, but she thought she had had enough, and Kiriyuu finally felt herself pop, "RAAAAARRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and buried her head further into the back of Haru's arm, then – she whipped her head up. "That does it, Long-CHUMP! You've gone far enough in humiliating me!! I'm going to kill you!! Prepare to die!!"

Longchamp giggled. Tsuna's eyes popped. _He's… He's laughing at a time like this?_

"You don't mean it, Kiriyuu-chan! You said it the last time too!"

Kiriyuu was positively furious, even Yamamoto had stepped away from her as her face seemed to have turned a nasty shade of crimson, and her eyebrows furrowed into a tight 'V' and her knuckles cracked as she scrunched her fists together. Her teeth grinded together and white powder glittered her bottom lip…. Teeth enamel?! There was even some strange aura protruding from her…. It glowed like Fire… red… orange… then blue – that was strange – red again… well, that's what Tsuna imagined.

Kiriyuu was about to brandish her rifle, despite Tsuna madly signalling her with his arms in the 'X' position, telling her to stop when –

"Longchamp-kun!" A distressed voice yelped, and everyone swerved their heads to the open doorway. It was bellboy Mungusta. "What are you doing? Why'd you let Vongola people onto our property! They're our sworn enemies! Enemies of the Longchamp the Second! This is war!"

"Ara, Mungusta, don't be so out-front and dramatic about this! They're only coming to visit!" Longchamp said with a hapless grin.

Mungusta turned back to the group. Tsuna glanced at Reborn. He was swamped with guns. Gokudera was about to lit a fuse with the butt of his cigarette. Kiriyuu looked like a gorilla with extreme anger management problems, armed with a shotgun.

"Didn't I tell you we'd be destroying the Tomaso?" Reborn piped up. "Just look at Kiriyuu."

She cocked her shotgun towards Longchamp's direction.

Haru was watching with widened eyes. "…K-Kiriyuu?"

"I've been waiting too, Reborn-san!" Gokudera agreed, "Let's blow this place sky-high!"

"AAARGHHH!" Longchamp screamed bloody murder, pulling at his face. "Not you too, Kiriyuu!"

The annihilation began despite Tsuna's protests; Tsuna, Longchamp, Haru, I-Pin, Yamamoto, Lambo and Mungusta barely managed to get out of the room with all the gunfire and explosions that were going off. Reborn, Gokudera and Kiriyuu went insane in destroying Longchamp's house, though Kiriyuu deemed this as a personal matter and practically went King-Kong.

"Nooo! My perfect antiques! My lifelong collection!! I have to go back!" Longchamp snivelled, but Mungusta grabbed him back and rushed out.

"Are you MAD?! She's going to kill you!"

Back in the room, Kiriyuu was just getting started as Gokudera and Reborn also went ape. She kicked over his junk-filled boxes, packets of sushi-bento-box soya sauce and pickled ginger poured out and she stomped continuously over them, making sure the packets sploosh out all their soggy contents everywhere over his mouse-coloured carpet, before crunching the cardboard box into a flat pancake under her shoes. Next, she grabbed a bundle-full of his messy, unfolded clothes strewn over piles of discarded, chemical-less batteries and stomped on them, too, before kicking them out of the room and onto the grass outside.

She then averted her attention to his collection of useless batteries and smirked evilly. She knew what she would do to him as revenge -

She recharged them.

"NOOOOO!" came Longchamp's estranged cry as his heart lurched.

That would make him crack like a nut. That was such an evil and diabolical plan, she was even surprised at herself because she didn't realise she could that evil, and diabolical. Kiriyuu cackled in victory, and left them charging while she went to destroy other things that Longchamp held dear. Who knew that he would actually have something useful like a battery recharger that was hiding under a group of lonely-looking electric appliances anyway? She repeatedly kicked away at his 'toys', and Reborn tossed one which she had missed from the pile.

"Catch, Kiriyuu."

She peered through with one eye in the crosshairs of her shotgun, then - _BLAM!_She ended up toppling over slightly because of the recoil from the shotgun as an empty shell popped out of the barrel. Whatever Reborn had thrown at her was now raining back down to earth in tiny, broken fragments.

Reborn blinked. "Not exactly what I had in mind, but oh well. Good work, Kiriyuu."

She flashed him an 'A-Okay' sign. With that pile she had been concentrating on done and in smithereens, she then clawed at the raunchy-looking poster and stuffed it into her mouth, then proceeded in pulling out his 'Super porn' magazines one by one and borrowed Gokudera's lighter. Cackling again, she set them on fire and used the newly-made bonfire to roast the old pot of rice bean paste that Lambo almost fell in earlier on.

"GAH!" Longchamp spat out some blood. No, not really. He was just overreacting, as usual; they were actually far away from the room now, but he knew something else important to him had been completely annihilated, courtesy of Kiriyuu, obviously.

Eventually, Kiriyuu found the box of 'OLD GIRLFRIEND JUNK' and rifled through hundreds of Longchamp's previous partner's belongings, including hers. It was a range between Kiriyuu's used hankies and shoelaces. Without a second thought, she gathered them up into her arms and ran into the not-yet destroyed bathroom and carelessly dumped the entire contents into the sink and toilet. She opened the taps of the sink and left it to fill up with the plug in. She yanked violently on the toilet handle and it flushed unsuccessfully about twenty times, creating an obvious disturbance in plumbing… as the bathroom began to pile up with lavatory water and tapwater, Kiriyuu slammed the door shut and ran back to Longchamp's half-destroyed room, still laughing insanely while waving her shotgun in the air.

Her final message to Longchamp: 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs, even though they weren't so great'.

And thus, the end to Kiriyuu and Longchamp's relationship for good.

...

Sorry, had to cram Futa somewhere. is it Futa, or Fuuta?? O.o


	17. Alive and Kicking by Sunday

**Chapter 17**

_Alive and Kicking by Sunday_

"…. A camping trip?" Kiriyuu stuttered out wobbly, as soon as Tsuna mentioned the three words to her during interval.

It was raining…. Sighs. Kiriyuu hated rain. Not just that, but there was supposedly an upcoming typhoon, too…. Longchamp didn't have to suffer any dodgy Japanese tropical storms or massive and random downpours in the middle of the afternoon – he had buggered away somewhere some time after that and Kiriyuu never saw him since. Actually, it was more like he was deliberately avoiding her. That was a good thing, she presumed, because she would kill him the next time she saw him. Surprisingly enough, Kiriyuu herself didn't want to kill him as much as she did back at the visit to the house. It was just because he pissed her off so much, that she lost it. She didn't really want to mix with him anyway; well, not as much as Tsuna did. She heard that Tsuna and Gokudera were invited to a game of bowling down at the Namimori Recreation facility centre and ended up being mentally scarred for life. She also missed out on a lot of other things, too – including Bianchi's June Wedding, and a Vacation Resort trip, but she didn't really mind.

It was now the typical Japanese school day of bad weather; assembly went pretty fast, with Kiriyuu squished beside Yamamoto and Kyoko in drenched underpants listening to announcements from the Principal saying that students weren't allowed to practise werewolvism/Lycanism in Room 201 anymore. Period 1 was slow, moderate, period 2 was moderate, period 3 went very fast because it was Home Economics and Kiriyuu loved that subject, and now it was break-time. Half of the class remained in the classroom because of the poor weather outside; others went skulking around in the corridors. Yamamoto and Gokudera had gone out to the cafeteria to bring some more snacks up, whilst Kyoko was off somewhere with her friend Hana, who Kiriyuu had yet to meet… and didn't really want to meet, to be honest. She didn't seem like a very nice person…

Anyway, Tsuna was left with the girl. After Kiriyuu went on a rampage back at Longchamp's house, Tsuna began to get a bit more wary of her, maybe even afraid. He nodded. "A camping trip. This Saturday, 9am at Namimori bus station. Would you like to come with us, Kiriyuu-chan?"

At first, the look on Kiriyuu's face made Tsuna swallowed down a bit nervously. "...C-Camping… t-trip?" She trembled again.

"Er. Yeah…?" Tsuna began to get worried. "It's okay, Longchamp isn't coming. I'm pretty sure he'd be avoiding anything to do with you after what you did to his house so you don't have to worry in case you'll see him again, haha…" He laughed.

Kiriyuu trembled even more instead.

"… Is something wrong?"

"No, of course not! Nothing's wrong, AHAHAHA!" The way how she laughed made everyone in the classroom glance towards their direction. Tsuna cringed minutely. "I'd luuuuuurve to come!" She yelled out, her eye twitching fiercely.

"Um. Are you okay?"

"YES!" She responded back, rather cheerfully now.

Silence.

He glanced at her through half-lidded eyes. "… You're on cannabis again, aren't you?" A sigh then escaped his lips.

"YEEEES! But I just sniffed it by accident this morning…" She said in a sing-song voice. "And now I feel great!"

"Don't worry, Reborn will help you rehab." Tsuna sighed again, and Gokudera and Yamamoto finally returned back from their trip and dumped packets of Beef Jerky, Yorkies and Snicker bars onto the surface of their desks.

"Hey guys, Kiriyuu-chan said she can come with us to the trip." Tsuna said, as they both took seats beside him.

"That's great! We're going to have big feasts and sing songs around the campfire everyday!" Yamamoto laughed, patting Kiriyuu on the back again.

"Really?" Kiriyuu asked, her eyes sparkling. Gokudera just cleared his throat, a bit loudly, coughing into his fist. She turned to him. "That's the consequences of smoking acting up now, Goku-san!"

"Ah, shut it, Kirby-san." He waved her off (his new nickname for her).

Her attention went back to Tsuna now. "Eto… Who else is going?"

"Well, Reborn was the one who organised it, so I have to go; Yamamoto-kun and Gokudera-kun are also going too. I think Haru is coming along, so is Lambo and I-Pin. Ryohei and Kyoko can't come because they have a family get-together that day…" Tsuna sounded dreadfully disappointed when he mentioned Kyoko's name.

"Huh…" Kiriyuu said, thinking thoughtfully. She thought for a long time; everyone stared at her, and when she finally opened her mouth, they leaned in to hear what she was going to say. "…How come you guys only got boy-eaties?" Kiriyuu mumbled instead, poking at the Yorkie, and everyone grimaced inwardly.

"Boy-eaties? Oh, you mean edible treats usually designated for the male gender?" Yamamoto chuckled. Wow, Yamamoto just said a sentence with rather multifaceted words. Unlike him, usually. "That's Kiriyuu-chan for you." He said, ruffling her hair again. She flushed, grinning awkwardly. He then snatched the Yorkie away from under her nose, grinning.

"Hey… I was thinking of eating that…"

He dangled it playfully above her. "Come and get it then!" He sat up from his seat and fled to the corner of the classroom, waving the bar around mischievously.

She pursed her lips. "But you're the nice one…"

Yamamoto blinked. "…. Maybe I should do this more often then. Just kidding!"

Kiriyuu grinned in response then, folding up her shirt sleeves and leapt from her desk; Gokudera and Tsuna just stared at her. "Okay! You're gonna get it now, Yama-san! I'm gonna eat your head like it was soggy toast and chowder, ora, ora, ora!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Uh… Okay…?"

Tsuna sweatdropped; Kiriyuu had to learn how to taunt her 'enemies' properly, and he continued to watch the pair mess around as Kiriyuu tried to snatch the bar back from Yamamoto's long, basebat-holding hands and arms. In fact, Tsuna wondered what kind of enemies Kiriyuu could've made back in Hitman Academy. She was always talking about it. What was it really like? He smiled sheepishly as the pair continued fighting for the bar. _I'm glad they're getting along fine. Yamamoto gets along fine with everyone anyway. Unlike some people._

"Feh. She'll just be another baggage to carry." Gokudera merely grunted out as he unwrapped a Snickers bar and bit into it.

Tsuna sighed. "Kiriyuu's not that bad, Gokudera-kun. Just get to know her better. She is really a nice person."

He snorted. "I still don't get how she can be a hitman."

"Yeah, that is a bit strange. Maybe she's like one of those people who want to be like others and don't stick to the status quo but inside they know what they really want but they keep denying it, if you know what I mean – " Then, Tsuna went a bit red at his own rambling and began stammering, " – I mean, I, uh… well, you know, Kiriyuu – she's just like an innocent girl like Kyoko-chan so she maybe being a hitman isn't the right, suitable job for her and I'm plenty sure there are other good jobs for her like Ball-Collectors in Golf games, you know, ahaha…?" Tsuna eventually cringed at his own rant as it just increased in length.

However, Gokudera began to snivel heavily. "T-That was so beautiful, Juudaime… you really do understand your subordinates! I feel lucky to be your right-hand man…!"

Tsuna sighed helplessly again as Gokudera clung onto him, sobbing into his shirt. He lifted a hand, and patted Gokudera lightly on the head. "There, there…"

Kiriyuu finally stopped trying to retrieve the chocolate bar she would never have no matter how many books she could stack up to reach Yamamoto's height. "No fair! You're too tall! Do you drink a lot of milk?"

"Ahahaha, that's right! If you drink milk, you'll grow as healthy and tall as me!" The taller boy laughed, and he eventually gave her back the bar, seeing how hopeless she was.

"Yay!" She cheered, waving the bar around. Then she stopped. "Oh my god."

"… What?" Yamamoto blinked blankly at her.

She then bounced up and down on the spot and Yamamoto went slightly dizzy as he watched her. "Y-You know the lyrics to the song of the Namimori Milk Advert…!! The one with the guy dressed as a dancing milk carton!!"

"EH?!" This came from everyone of the newly 4-person group so far. But then, Yamamoto grinned. "Well, um, yes, I do."

"My brother!" Kiriyuu cried, and she flung her arms around his waist. "Come, let's rejoice our support of Milk in song!"

"Um… I don't really – "

She sang. "Oh, Namimoreeeee! How doth you make milk like theeee? If you drink more milkkkkk, you'll grow as healthy and tall as meeeee! High-five, me brudda!"

Silence.

Gokudera, visibly cringing, was attempting to hide behind Tsuna's big hair, who was hiding behind his table. Everyone else in the classroom was staring at the ginger girl like as if she was a lunatic. Heck, she was when she was exposed to drugs. Kiriyuu was left standing in an awkward pose with her palm up to Yamamoto. Her mouth was still open.

"…You're not… high-fiving…"

Yamamoto then let out a roar of laughter, and then he high-fived her, and put an arm around Kiriyuu; then gave her a noogie on the head. She just squirmed under his grip slightly. "You're something, aren't ya? You're like a little comedian; are you on _**drugs**_? Ahaha!"

Tsuna went even red in the face with embarrassment as the rest of the class resumed in their own business. _Thank god she's not in the Vongola family….Then again, maybe things will get interesting if she was. Hmm, so far, the family's only got Yamamoto and Gokudera as confirmed members. Hibari's still on the debating table, but I doubt he'd be interested. What about Kiriyuu? She's good at sniping. What about melee combat?_

Her voice rang through the classroom again. "You're like the older brother I nevah had!" She squawked back at him happily. "I want you to be my brother!! You too, Goku-san! Join our Milk Circle!"

"ACK! GET AWAY!" The silver-haired boy screamed, leaping out of his seat and trying to run away, but Kiriyuu grabbed him and forced them into their circle.

"Heehee, Tsuna can be our daddy." Kiriyuu grinned, gesturing to him.

"EH?! D-Daddy?" He was now wondering where his youth had gone. _Well, she thinks we're family now. Wait – I hate the mafia!! Nooo! No thinking about creating families now. Bad Tsuna, bad, bad, bad!!_

Kiriyuu's drug effect was still in play. "After all… he's the leader of Vong – Mmphhh!"

Thankfully, Gokudera had smacked a hand over her mouth. As Tsuna smiled helplessly at them, he sensed a frightening presence from the classroom and whipped his head round; Hibari was watching the trio from the small window of the classroom door. "HIIIIEEEE!!" He screamed, almost falling off his seat.

Everyone turned round. "What's wrong, Juudaime?!" Gokudera said, lifting Kiriyuu's arm from his shoulder and stared towards Tsuna's direction. The Vongola tried to regain his breath, and Yamamoto released Kiriyuu from the headlock.

"I thought – I-I saw… H-Hibari-san?!" Tsuna exclaimed, pointing at the door.

But there was no-one there…

………….

"… Maybe it was a ghost." Kiriyuu babbled, scratching at her elbow as they left the classroom for the day. She would be meeting up with Hibari at the gate as usual; by that time, everyone would part ways because they didn't want to see Hibari. Hundreds of umbrellas were put up; thank god Kiriyuu had brought her tiny, black retractable umbrella with her. She actually didn't know if Hibari had brought one with him to school.

Everyone shuddered at the thought. "I've never heard of Namimori High being haunted. What did the ghost look like?" Yamamoto asked.

"Like Hibari-san." Tsuna moaned out as Gokudera held the umbrella over him; Yamamoto had a huge one with yellow, white, blue and green panels, like a typical fisherman's umbrella; it was big enough to cover Kiriyuu, so she went under it for the moment.

"Then it's the ghost of Hibari's former self… um… He must've attended this school and loved it so much that his ghost stayed but his soul reincarnated into the Hibari we know today." Kiriyuu deducted. "… Um, you know, I actually don't recall what happened during interval. It was kinda like a black-out… Maybe Namimori is haunted!"

"Rubbish; that was you on cannabis, you bampot." Gokudera prodded his finger at her nose.

Yamamoto just laughed. Kiriyuu went slightly red. "Eh? T-That's impossible! I threw it away!" She then cried back in protest. Tsuna and Gokudera's looks on their faces made her shrink under them and behind Yamamoto's arm. "…. Okie, I kept a small sachet as a souvenir."

"You're terrible." Gokudera snickered. "Give it, c'mon."

"You want some?"

He hit her over the head, not as hard but Hibari, but still enough to make her wince slightly. "No, I'll give it to Reborn to get rid of it."

She handed it over to him, and Gokudera stuffed it into his pocket. Kiriyuu stared blankly at him for a moment, and then she broke out of it when Yamamoto patted her head again. "Hey, you know what place is really haunted?" He said, completely changing the subject.

"What?" This came from everyone.

"The woods we're going to in three days, you know, for our camping trip. It's called the Screamer Woods. My dad told me plenty of ghost stories about it. A lot of people were murdered there a long time ago. It's deemed one of the most dangerous places to go at night."

"… Stories? Screamer Woods? Ghost stories? Murderings?!" Kiriyuu began to worry. "Tsuna – are you okay with this?"

"U-Um… W-Well, er…. It happened a long time ago… They aren't confirmed stories…" But Tsuna held the same concern Kiriyuu did too. He looked at Kiriyuu; she bit her lip and stared back at him uncomfortably in return.

"Ciaossu!"

Kiriyuu screamed out loud. "R-Reborn-sama!" She cried, as Gokudera sniggered again. Reborn was sitting atop Tsuna's head; she didn't even notice. In fact, no-one seemed to notice.

"Talking about the trip this Saturday, are we?"

"U-Uh…."

"You don't have to come with us if you don't want to, Kiriyuu." Reborn said. "This trip is to help Tsuna in his mafioso boss studies and is also another test of courage."

"What about the ghosts? T-The stories and all - "

A snot bubble blew out from Reborn's nose. Tsuna gawped as a bit of drool splashed onto his shoulder. _He's not even listening anymore!_

The girl went slightly pink. "O-Okay, I'll come. Even if there are ghosts. I mean, Japanese ghosts are terrifying right…? With _The Grudge_ and… all…"

"Cheh, I don't believe in that garbage." Gokudera snapped at her. "There's no such thing as ghosts. I only believe in _science_." **(1)**

Hmm, maybe Gokudera and his scientific ways will help her in one way or the other. "Tell me more." Kiriyuu suddenly blurted out.

Everyone stared.

"H-Huh?" The cigarette almost fell from his lips. This would be the first time someone was actually interested in listening to Gokudera's scientific hypothesises and ramblings. Kiriyuu kept staring at Gokudera.

"I would like to listen more to Goku-san's theories."

His face went an unusual colour. "R-Really…?"

"Yeah – Oh, crap. We're at the gate already. Oh, there's Hibari. He has no umbrella." Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious, Kiriyuu. She hurriedly scrambled out from Yamamoto's fisherman umbrella's shelter, quickly thanked him, and waved the rest of them off as they departed their ways. She ran up to Hibari, pushing the umbrella open at the same time. "Hibari! You didn't bring an umbrella?"

"That's because I gave it to you." He said, as little droplets of rain dripped onto his cheek and collar. His shirt was even starting to get a bit damp as the jacket provided little waterproof properties…

Kiriyuu blinked at her umbrella. "Oh, eto, that's right. You gave it to me this morning… Okie, okie, let's go home now."

He grabbed the umbrella off her and began stalking off back towards the direction of their street. Kiriyuu was left in the pouring rain. "Hibari! Wait for me!" She scurried through puddles up to him, trying to keep herself dry – but the umbrella wasn't exactly suited for two people to share – Kiriyuu was always kept in the rain.

"Hurry up. The rain's getting worse." He called over his shoulder.

She frowned. "Then stop walking so fast!! Hibari..!" Hmph, he was deliberately walking fast so she couldn't get any shelter.

Suddenly, a car skidded past and completely soaked Kiriyuu cleanly from head to toe with muddied, brown puddle water. She stopped, as water grimy water dripped from the tips of her hair and on her face, shocked with her mouth agape as the car whisked past down the road. Hibari eventually turned back round; Kiriyuu was sniffling at him as she stood dejectedly in the pavement; alone, cold, and completely drenched.

"I got soaked by a car."

"….. I can see that." He sighed, then walked back up to her, and stopped shortly in front of her. "Come on."

She stared up at him with teary eyes and a wobbling lip. He gestured to his arm. She dabbed at her eyes, then blinked at him dumbly. He rolled his eyes, and began stomping away from her. Kiriyuu sniffled again and rushed up to him, to the side that was furthest away from the main road. "Wait!" Kiriyuu stared at his arm for a few moments as she struggled to keep up with his pace, then she hesitantly wrapped her arm around his, and smushed her cheek against it. He glanced down – she looked back up at him without moving her head; the umbrella was now partially covering her.

He turned his gaze back to the front. "….. Just stay close."

……………

Once they arrived back at home, Hibari violently shook the umbrella free of excess rainwater, then hung it from a hook just under the roof of the front porch. Kiriyuu was busy emptying her shoes of water, as Hibari trudged past her and towards the bathroom. She then waddled back into the lounge to drop off her bag, and followed Hibari to the bathroom - She remembered that she to tell him about the trip. Hmm, what would Hibari say?

"Um… Hibari?"

"What?" He turned back to her with a dry towel for his hair. Kiriyuu went to fetch her own towel and then trailed him back out to the living room.

"Eto… I'm, uh… going to a camping trip on Saturday. I'm leaving at 9am."

Hibari draped the towel over his neck. "A school trip? I don't recall authorisation from your class teacher."

Eee, Hibari really was the perhaps the central heart of the school. He knew everything; had branches that spread out like veins and capillaries. Kiriyuu smiled at him awkwardly. "No, I'm going with my friends."

Suddenly, a tonfa came hurtling towards her – it was almost an unconscious reaction - and Kiriyuu dodged; she executed a rather clumsy-looking back flip - landing on the ground and egg-rolling away to safety. She didn't even know where he got his tonfas from. She perked back up as soon as the tonfa flew out from the window, landing outside in the yard. "Hey!? What was that for?!"

"You have unnatural reflexes." He said apprehensively, eyeing her down from above.

"Um, I used to take gymnastics. Didn't I tell you that already?" Kiriyuu swallowed slightly. She didn't think she told him before that she took gymnastics.

He was watching her suspiciously. He used to always beat her up; now she was showing some a strange sign of behaviour and present skills now. If she could at least do something like that, why did she put up with his beatings?

"Why?" He then asked.

"Huh?" Kiriyuu looked away awkwardly. She knew he was starting to notice; sure, she had told him she was a hitman; but how good of a hitman she was; she never told him. At the start, she was bent on killing him and only kept her 'skills' a secret because she didn't want to attract any unwanted attention, but now… it was pretty obvious now. She wasn't going to do that. "The trip? I want to go, that's why."

"No, not the trip. You know what I'm talking about. Looks like you're not so useless as you always say and think you are."

"…. Uh….Well, I'm not really good at what I do, Hibari. And I put up with you… because, well, I like you. But I'm still going to the trip."

"Is that other guy going?" He then asked, fishing out his jotters and books from his bag, before hanging it to dry on the laundry rack.

"… What other guy?"

"The guy with the all the uniform dress code violations."

"Oh, Longchamp? What about him? He's left! Eto, I'm still going anyway!"

Hibari paused. "I don't think so."

"What?" She scrambled back up. "Why not?"

"I have a lot of chores for you that day." He sighed, flipping a page of his school diary.

"Can't you postpone them to another day? I really want to go…"

Hibari watched her silently for a few seconds. "…. Fine."

"HURRAY!"

"But I will come with you."

Kiriyu stopped cheering. "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

**That Saturday…**

The weather in Namimori was beginning to clear up; hopefully, the mud in the woods they would be camping in was not damp and squishy.

"I can't believe Hibari-san is coming with us." Tsuna, with his sleeping bag and a bang hanging off his left shoulder, mumbled darkly under his breath. "And I can't believe that Reborn allowed this."

"We can get to know Hibari better." Reborn replied, sitting on top of the sleeping bag.

Tsuna grumbled. "Well, at least the weather's clearing up…."

Haru, with her sleeping bag on her back, two bags on her left and right, and one strapped atop her head, looked equally as uncomfortable as Tsuna did as Lambo and I-Pin messed around, weaving in between her legs, playing a blind game of tag. Beside her, Yamamoto, with his sleeping bag and two bags, grinned as they waited under the shade of the bus shelter. Beside him, Gokudera, with his sleeping bag, his own attaché case and Tsuna's other bag (which he voluntarily carried), looked over the horizon of the street with his binoculars.

"Something's coming." He said, gnawing at the piece of pocky-choco stick in his mouth.

It was Hibari, wearing a black t-shirt with his prefect jacket hanging off his shoulders, and dark, metal blue jeans. Behind him, Kiriyuu was lagging behind terribly, two sleeping bags on her back and three rucksacks hanging off her and a bag strapped on her head like Haru's. Reborn cured her of her cannabis addiction several days ago – he got her addicted to kidney beans instead, so that was done.

Everyone shuddered as soon as they approached the group who were standing in a horizontal line. "Hi guys! W-Whoa - !" Kiriyuu lost balance and toppled down."Oof!"

Tsuna and Yamamoto hurried to help her – but they were abruptly stopped by Hibari, who pried off his sleeping bag from Kiriyuu's back, leaving her in the ground. Hibari stalked off to the end of the line.

"Interesting." Reborn murmured under his breath.

Tsuna helped Kiriyuu up. She smiled at him. "Eto, arigateau, Tsuna."

The Vongola just smiled back at her. He was pretty sure he heard her say 'Ari-Gateau', not 'arigatou'.

"Are you okay, Kiriyuu-chan?" Haru asked, wincing at all the heavy bags hanging off her.

"Yeah, I guess."

"I'll carry one for you." Yamamoto lifted one of the rucksacks off her and placed it over his shoulder. "What's wrong with Hibari-san?"

Kiriyuu opened her mouth, but then stopped. He had been acting strangely ever since the incident with the Dying Will bullet. But now, it was just even worse. The truth was, she didn't know what was wrong with Hibari at all.

………….

"There's no dial tone." Haru moaned under her breath as she flipped her phone back down. "Hmph."

"Same here." Kiriyuu mumbled, switching off her own.

"Don't worry, Leon can shapeshift into a radio in emergencies." Reborn said, protruding out a small green device from under his hat that was supposed to be Leon.

The woods were scary. Tsuna, Lambo and Kiriyuu felt the last of their courage wither away as soon as they arrived into the clearing of the Screamer woods. The bus journey took half an hour - Hibari sat at the back of the bus; Kiriyuu was with Haru, Gokudera fought to sit beside Tsuna, while Yamamoto sat with Reborn. I-Pin and Lambo sat together near Tsuna. The bus dropped them off at the foot of the mountain where the woods were, with a warning from the strangely, suspicious-looking bus driver who said 'Beeeeeeware! Beeeeeeeware the Screamer Woods! Those who go in do not come baaaaack!' – before driving off laughing insanely. While Yamamoto and Gokudera shrugged it off; Tsuna and Kiriyuu received full blast of the ominous warning and turned white as paper while Haru and the babies were luckily enough not to hear the message.

"We're here. The test of courage begins now. You will each realise that you all have a handheld camcorder in your bags. They are courtesy of me to record your last moments here, like the _Blair Witch Project_." Reborn said.

Tsuna, Lambo and Kiriyuu exchanged stiff, terrified looks as the camcorders were tossed towards everyone's directions, except from the babies because they would probably eat them or something… Afterwards, as soon as everyone settled down, the tents were put up; there were three – Haru, Kiriyuu, Lambo and I-Pin shared one, and Tsuna, Yamamoto and Gokudera, along with Reborn would share the other. Hibari had his own tent. Next, they set up the fire and unpacked their food.

"What kind of animals lives here?" Kiriyuu asked, squatting down beside the group as they huddled around the empty fireplace; Hibari was still in his tent. He had been ignoring her for a long time now.

There was a lonesome howl from a few feet from them. Then a hoot, and finally, a weird, strangled scream.

Yamamoto shrugged. "I'm not too sure. Well, we'll find out when we go in to collect firewood!"

"H-HUH?!" This response came from Tsuna, Lambo and Kiriyuu.

Reborn blew his green whistle – which was also Leon. "I will now explain everyone's roles. Haru would be in charge of catering affairs." Reborn then said. Haru nodded. "Gokudera and Yamamoto will be on wood-collecting duty and anyone else who would like to join them." Gokudera and Yamamoto just stared at each other, then back. Tsuna sighed in relief. "Kiriyuu would be in charge of laundry. Tsuna will make sure that everyone is still alive by Sunday."

"Make sure that everyone is still alive by Sunday?" Tsuna blinked blankly, then smiled weakly. "That's a pretty easy job…right?"

"No, it's not."

"Eh?"

"Hey, what about Hibari?" Kiriyuu asked.

"He can look after himself. There is no need to worry."

"Oh."

Everyone shifted into action.

"… Eto… Why do I always have to do laundry…?"

"Tsunaaaa! Haru-chan will help you make sure everyone is still alive!"

"O-Okay, thanks, Haru… Guys, be careful, okay? Everyone should look after one another here."

"Such inspiring words, Juudaime…. Come on, you baseball nut, time to get some firewood. Don't want Juudaime to starve."

"Hey, Hayato, what's that thing hanging out of your pocket? Is-Is that a - "

"I-It's nothing!! OW!"

"You tripped over I-Pin, Gokudera-kun!"

")-;?!"£):(-?"

"Eh?"

"I-Pin says you're the one who needs glasses, not her, kyahaha!!"

"… Why the hell are you two freaks here anyway?!"

Kiriyuu sighed. Man, she wished she hadn't come. It was too noisy, but in a good way, actually. Things were livelier, and there was some kind of warmth there that wasn't back in the Hibari house, when it was just Kiriyuu and Hibari. She watched her friends forlornly with a sad smile, until Reborn tugged gently at her hair.

He had leapt on her shoulder and Kiriyuu stopped sorting through her bag. "Kiriyuu."

"I'm okay, really, Reborn-sama." She wiped at her eyes a bit. "It's-It's just… so beautiful… Is this…Is this what being a family is supposed to feel like?"

At that point, Reborn smiled lightly. "Yes… You could say that. Take care of yourself, Kiriyuu. Don't do anything reckless."

"Yup, will do. You too, Reborn-sama."

* * *

Don't think I mentioned this, but the way how Kiriyuu calls Gokudera as '**Goku-san**' is a pun I made up. **Gokusen** is a manga/anime/live action with some relation to the mafia, too!

1. A quote from _Nacho Libre_. Sorry. Ahem.


	18. Thugged Up

**Chapter 18**

_Thugged Up_

Reborn hopped off her shoulder to attend to the other enquiries of Tsuna and co; Tsuna was dragged by Haru to unpack the stuff, Yamamoto was busy placing stones carefully in a circle, while Gokudera was left wondering why he was also put in charge of the camera which Haru brought with her for extensive landscape-scenery photo-taking (like as if the Screamer Woods was a very appealing place, though). Kiriyuu decided to check up on Hibari just to see how he was doing. Unfortunately, tents had no doorbell. Uh… she knocked on the tent; the fabric just wavered under her clenched knuckles – okay, that wasn't going to help either.

"Hey, Hibari?" She yelled out instead.

There were a few moments of silence. Then – "What do you want?"

"Can I come in?"

"No. Get lost."

Kiriyuu's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?! Don't tell me to 'get lost'! That's it – I'm coming in – whether you like it or not!" She couldn't get the zipper that was holding the 'front door' of the tent closed because the zipper would be in Hibari's side, not hers. Screaming in fury, she began to kick at his tent constantly. Vile retribution was in her mind. "Open. _Up_! Open. _Up_!"

It collapsed eventually; Hibari was covered in waterproof, soft, nylon cloth. He pulled it off him, glaring at her fiercely. He was half-naked and he had been changing. Kiriyuu went dark red, and slightly misty-eyed. "Oh, uh, I didn't realise you were changing, Hibari. Y-You shoulda told me earlier …. Then I wouldn't have kicked and destroyed your tent… Haha…ahaha…hah…ahem."

"You are going to die – once I put my shirt back on."

"Nuuu!"

From over his shoulder, Reborn called. "Tsuna, make sure Kiriyuu comes out of that alive!"

**Night-time…**

Kiriyuu survived, but with a torn ligament in her thigh and a broken nose.

Tsuna and Kiriyuu were sitting in a corner away from the group, covered in bruises and bandaged with a plaster over her nose while snacking silently on their dinner. Yamamoto had brought milk and countless of sushi in a mini portable fridge that would probably last them for three days – not like they really wanted to eat sushi for three days straight anyway – they'd probably end up with stomach worms or something. Gokudera brought a hefty supply of Bianchi's poison cooking which she gave him – it was tossed to the side, unfortunately, and fed to Lambo instead. I-Pin brought dyed red eggs and lots and lots of dim sum which were okay, until they realised that I-Pin's poor vision meant she added too much mushrooms and flour to the meat since she couldn't read the recipe properly. Haru brought more authentic Japanese food which was the safest to eat. Kiriyuu brought hamburgers, risotto and pasta, however, she realised that her tub of hamburgers had been missing from her bag ever since they arrived at the woods. The risotto looked like it would grow an arm and kill someone, so that was fed to Lambo, too.

"I'm sorry you got involved, eto." Kiriyuu mumbled under her breath.

Tsuna was also partially bleeding and unable to see through his left eye for temporary, courtesy of Hibari for interfering. "N-No, it's okay…"

"Hey, you guys! Why are you sitting all the way over there? Don't you want to listen to my scary story?" Yamamoto grinned, waving at them.

"Juudaime! The fire's warm!" Gokudera waved enthusiastically, sitting beside Yamamoto and Reborn around the campfire, holding wieners on sticks.

"Kiriyuu-chan, you're missing out." Haru pointed out, as Lambo and I-Pin slept, their heads resting on her lap.

Hibari was nowhere to be seen. Tsuna and Kiriyuu trembled at the same time. "N-No thank you…" There was a reason why they sat so far away from the group. Tsuna and Kiriyuu looked at each other. "Better to not listen, right?" Tsuna said with tiny, awkward grin.

"Y-Yeah…" She nodded nervously too.

Yamamoto began his story anyway, loudly enough for Tsuna and Kiriyuu to listen much to their disliking. "My dad told me this a long time ago…. There used to be a log cabin somewhere around these parts. A group of loggers used to live there; three of 'em. They were dispatched to live there and cut down trees for a project somewhere in the city. The eldest of the group was Daisuke, then his brother, Itsuki, and finally, there was the apprentice, Mitsuki, the youngest of them all."

"Their mentor, Satsuma, occasionally visited them from the city and bring food to them, since food was scarce here. However, one day, due to the terrible weather – like the typhoon three days ago – there was a landslide, and Satsuma, who had just brought them some food, was stuck along with the loggers! They had no means of contact to the outside world, and the weather was just getting worse and worse with each passing day."

Yamamoto continued, his face illuminated with shadows to create a dramatic, scary effect. "Three weeks passed…. Their food had run out. Starving and weak, Satsuma had a horrible idea in his mind. All those weeks of containment with nothing to do, and staying in a bad atmosphere took a toll on his sanity."

Tsuna and Kiriyuu felt their spines tingle, and they craned their head round to the group.

"… He called Mitsuki, the youngest apprentice, down from the hut and into the woods. It was raining, Mitsuki didn't know what was going on. Satsuma stopped at this very clearing, stood in front of this very tree-trunk – " Yamamoto gestured to the trunk Haru was sitting on. She screamed and sat away. The babies woke up.

"T-Then what…?" Haru asked then, starting to sweat a bit. Even Gokudera looked a bit nauseous.

"…He killed him with a wood axe. Chopped him up into eeny-weeny, itty-bitty little pieces!" Yamamoto exclaimed, waving his arms around.

Tsuna and Kiriyuu then screamed.

Yamamoto continued further. "No-one could hear him scream for help. He chopped up Mitsuki's body and brought it back to the hut…. Dumped it into the pot… and made a stew…. And fed it to the rest of his apprentices…"

Tsuna and Kiriyuu gagged. Gokudera's eye twitched fiercely. Haru screamed this time and clamped her hands over the ears of Lambo and I-Pin; she tried to. They still heard, and began to panic.

"And now, they saw that Mitsuki's ghost haunts this woods… Screaming forever, in pain, in betrayal. This is why the woods are called so; you can hear his screams in the middle of the night. He wanders carelessly, and if he comes across any unlucky person wandering in this wood, he'll – "

"NOOOOO!" Tsuna, Kiriyuu and Haru screamed together.

Yamamoto then laughed. "But it's just a myth." He looked at the three who were shaking badly. "Um, sorry…didn't mean to scare you that much."

There was a rustle in the bushes. Everyone except from Reborn screamed at the top of their lungs. A squirrel poked out, sniffed the air, spat out the nut in its gob and dug a hole, and hid the nut, then scrambled back from where it came from. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; Haru was holding onto Tsuna tightly, Gokudera was also holding onto Tsuna; the poor, sandwiched boy was almost frothing at the mouth from the lack of blood circulation - Kiriyuu was holding onto Yamamoto, and vice versa. He then turned to her and laughed.

"It was just a squirrel." He exclaimed cheerfully. He was always cheerful, at dreary times and locations like this.

"Y-Yeah…" She was actually starting to cry a little; she was just slightly teary-eyed.

"What's wrong, huh? Kiriyuu-chan? Oh, you poor thing. I'm sorry." Yamamoto placed a hand atop her head. Kiriyuu just began to howl harder.

She wailed at him. "No more scary stories…!!"

He nodded, smiling. "No more then. I'm sorry I scared you so much."

There was a slight silence, then -

"You – "

Everyone screamed again. Then Kiriyuu and Yamamoto looked up… to face Hibari.

"Let go of her." Hibari said; his eyes were blatantly narrowed, his mouth in a tight frown. Kiriyuu didn't even know where he had come; Yamamoto released Kiriyuu, and Kiriyuu detached her arms from Yamamoto as well.

"H-Hibari, we were – "

"Shut up."

Kiriyuu stopped immediately. She blinked at him, as everyone slowly stood up. Yamamoto looked from Hibari, then to Kiriyuu and back. He had a rough idea of what was going on. Hibari was jealous! He was jealous of Yamamoto… and he had been jealous of Longchamp, too! Yamamoto held his arms up to try and shake off the misunderstanding. "Oh, hey, nothing happened, we were just telling really scary stories and – "

Hibari flashed Yamamoto a lethal glare. The boy stepped back, swallowing down a bit nervously. _Oops, I've made him even angrier!_

Hibari was watching them with the most deadly glare ever. She wanted something to happen; she wanted someone to stop this endless, uncomfortable moment. She would surely die here, and not die by being dragged to the Otherworld by some man who was cannibalised years ago and now his ghost would come after them – no, she would probably die at the hands of Hibari. "…I…."

"KYAAAAAAAAH!" Another person screamed.

Tsuna screamed in fright again, and everyone turned to Haru, who looked completely, devastatingly hysterical. "I-Pin… I-PIN'S GONE!!"

"WHAT?!" Everyone except from Hibari exclaimed in shock.

Instead, Hibari turned back round, and began storming off towards the direction of the woods. Kiriyuu turned to him in shock. "Hibari! Wait! Don't go in there!"

He ignored her, disappearing into the depths of the thick forest. Kiriyuu stepped back, still shaking. "N-No…Hibari, come back… Come back!" She cried after him desperately. Suddenly, Kiriyuu began to feel extremely guilty and angry at herself. "Oh no, this is all my fault…"

"Kiriyuu-chan, I'm sorry." Yamamoto said from beside her.

"… No, it's not your fault. It's mine." Kiriyuu mumbled out blearily, and then she plopped down on the ground. "I did all this. This is my fault."

"Hibari seems jealous." Reborn suddenly said from the sidelines. "Of Yamamoto."

"HELLOOOO? WE'RE MISSING A TODDLER HERE!" Haru screamed at the top of her lungs. "WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO WORRY ABOUT THAT SCARY, WEASEL BOY! WORRY ABOUT HIM LATER! What are we going to do about I-Pin?! Tsuna, DO SOMETHIIIIIIING!!"

"Uwah - ?!"

Suddenly, the unsettling silence was broken by a crackling static emitting from the radio Leon had shape-shifted into. Nothing else happened, however. Reborn then turned to Tsuna. "This is when your job comes into play, Tsuna. This is an excellent opportunity to display leadership skills, teamworking, good communication, the ability to work under pressure and many more."

"Reborn, this is serious!" The young Vongola began to worry immediately. _Oh crap, what's going on? Everything's happening too fast. What to do? What to do? _"U-Uh…. We'll…. Split up." Tsuna said shakily. "Kiriyuu, stay with Haru. Yamamoto, Gokudera, Lambo and I will go and find Hibari and I-Pin. Reborn, can you stay with the girls?"

"Wait!" Kiriyuu yelled, holding her hand up. "No, I want to come with you guys. I… I should be looking for Hibari. Eto… he's angry at me so he stalked off all by himself. Please let me come with you, please!!" She gave Tsuna the most puppy-eyed pout ever.

Tsuna's eyes twitched feverishly as she whimpered up at him miserably. "U-Uh… F-Fine… Okay, we'll split into two groups. I'll go with Yamamoto and Lambo, Gokudera, you can – "

"I will stay with Juudaime no matter what!"

"…Urk… " Tsuna re-thought the process. If Hibari saw Yamamoto with Kiriyuu; he would probably pop a gasket, but Gokudera would stick with Tsuna no matter what because he is his right-hand man… Unless Tsuna told him not to. "Gokudera, go with Yamamoto. _I mean it_. Reborn and Lambo will stay with Haru. I'll go with Kiriyuu." Tsuna then said. He then glanced at Kiriyuu. _I don't feel safe with Kiriyuu; she probably won't feel safe with me either._

"Don't worry, there is nothing in these woods that can harm you. We are just searching for lost comrades." Reborn piped up, as everyone split into their teams. Gokudera was left muttering incoherently under his breath beside Yamamoto. "Once you find I-Pin or Hibari, come back to camp immediately."

_That makes us feel so much better…_ "We'll go look for Hibari-san. You guys look for I-Pin, okay?" Tsuna commanded, with Kiriyuu standing solemnly beside him.

"Hai, Juudaime!" Gokudera ran into the forest, followed shortly by Yamamoto who wished them luck. They disappeared into the abyss.

"Tsunaaaa!" Lambo then yelled, jumping up to the duo that had yet to begin their mission. "Lambo will give you this for self-defence!"

He stared at the large contraption Lambo had thrust into his palms. "Eh? The 10-year-bazooka?! How on earth did you manage to pack this with you?"

"Nihihi! Lambo is the master of sneakery!" Lambo bounded back to Haru, who was grieving like a widow, complete with hanky.

"Be careful, you two!!" She cried, waving her hanky at them.

Tsuna was left holding the bazooka. "B-But I don't want it…"

"The 10-year-bazooka?" Kiriyuu asked curiously as she took it off him and began inspecting it carefully. "…What does that do?"

"N-Never mind…It's kinda complicated."He turned back round; Kiriyuu was now already venturing inside towards the direction Hibari left, with the bazooka under her arm. "Wait up, Kiriyuu!"

………..

Back in camp, the radio Leon turned in had picked up more frequency and the static was becoming more distinguishable into broken, distorted voices. Haru perked up from her seat; with a sleeping Lambo in her arms. Reborn, who was also sitting beside Haru, moved the radio up; as he held it in the air, the static became much more clearer.

"… Co-ordinates…. Chhhhh…. Fshhh…. 4…. X…..chhh…. Screamer…. Fsshhhh…. Send back-up…. Runaway…. Prisoner…. F34….6290…. has been located…. Heavily Armed… watch out…. civilians…"

Reborn looked down. "Oh dear."

"W-What's wrong, Reborn?" Haru asked worriedly. "Why hasn't anyone come back yet? It's already been fifteen minutes…"

"… It seems we have a dangerous criminal who has ventured into these woods. I'm not worried about Gokudera and Yamamoto because they can take care of themselves…"

Haru paled. "What about Tsuna and Kiriyuu? No, we can't – we have to get them back!"

"Haru, you can't go by yourself. You'll get lost. Just stay here, and stay calm. I'm sure they're alright…"

…………

"Hey, Tsuna. Now that we're alone; I can talk to you properly without Goku-san hanging off your shoulder." Kiriyuu was holding onto the 10-year-bazooka for Tsuna.

"Uh… what about Hibari…?"

"I am worried about him, but we should talk while we walk so it's not so scary! Besides… we hardly talk. You know, like chat, and laugh, and tell jokes. So if I try to talk to him, it's like talking to a brick wall that'll hit you back."

Tsuna raised an eyebrow. "…Uh… okay, you can tell me anything, Kiriyuu."

"Great!"

They had been stalking through the lonely woods for almost fifteen minutes now, and there was still no sight or hair of Hibari at all. Kiriyuu wasn't ready to give up yet, however. Tsuna thought his knees would collapse though. It felt as though they had been walking for an eternity…

"… To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure I like my family anymore." She began. "Back then, in Italy, we were like cast-outs… we were one family, but there was so many members, and some others were more highly regarded than others… so, I felt kinda… unappreciated, and… isolated, if you get what I mean…" Kiriyuu looked down, twiddling her thumbs together dejectedly as she stared at the ground. "… They said I was good, but… I dunno… I never really felt my place was there."

Tsuna watched her sympathetically. He felt sorry for her, and he was about to open his mouth and reassure her that everything was fine when -

Kiriyuu's hands suddenly clamped down over his shirt. "T-Tsuna…?" She was looking directly over his shoulder as she hid behind him nervously, terrified.

"…. What?" He didn't like the look on her face; he was starting to get a little scared, too.

"I-I think I s-s-saw s-s-something move…. O-Over t-there…." She was pointing but they were completely surrounded by darkness, and all the bushes and trees looked the same. "A-Are we lost…?"

"No, d-don't be silly…" Tsuna continued to walk forward, then bumped into something. They both screamed, and the figure turned around immediately. The silhouette was too tall to be Hibari, or Yamamoto in that matter; it certainly wasn't Gokudera, either, so who was it?! Tsuna and Kiriyuu scrambled back, as the figure approached them. "W-Who're – "

There was a glimmer of silver from the moon; and Kiriyuu noticed that this unknown person was holding a knife.

"T-Tsuna!" Kiriyuu squeaked out, shaking him anxiously. "H-He's got a knife…!"

The man spoke. "What are you two kids doing here?" A flashlight was then waving in front of them, and Tsuna and Kiriyuu shielded their eyes from the intensity. "This place is off-limits!"

"Tsuna, what do we do…?"

Without Reborn here…He felt as though he couldn't do anything, and suddenly realised how powerless he felt without Reborn; his usual confidence in his own abilities seemed to have withered down. "I…" He began anxiously, "I… I don't know… who is he??"

"I'm pretty sure these woods are completely isolated. There's no way he's an officer… maybe he's a logger…" Kiriyuu mumbled out shakily.

"… With a knife pointing at us?"

"You're right - Let's just run for it!" Kiriyuu whispered into Tsuna's ear; and he nodded. Before they could make a frantic dash for it; the man immediately intercepted their movement. The two were roughly cornered back further into the path.

The knife was shoved in front of their faces. "Don't run. Or scream, I'll kill you just like that. Even if you are just kids. I don't want to leave any witnesses behind."

So this is what it felt like; it was nothing like the movies, when some awful-looking thug would grab an old lady hostage with her purse and wait for cops to point guns at him. He'd have slit that woman's throat by then and made off with the purse. Kiriyuu was trembling like mad. Tsuna could tell she was terrified; damn it, he thought, they had no weapons; Reborn wasn't here with the Dying Will bullet so Tsuna was basically ineffective. Kiriyuu just had the bazooka. She didn't bring her sniper gun.

"…Kiriyuu…." Tsuna began slowly, as a plan slowly formed in his mind. "I want you… to shoot me with the 10-year-bazooka… Okay?" Perhaps what Tsuna became in 10 years time would be better than he was at the moment…?? He just had to do something to help anyway!

"H-Huh…?"

"Just do it!" He hissed, and Kiriyuu nodded.

"Stop!" The man then shouted, a hand flew into his pocket; there was definitely something in there. "I have a **gun** too. Put down… whatever that thing you have on the ground where I can see it." The man said, lifted up a small pistol and pointed the nozzle directly at them.

Kiriyuu began to panic all over again. Tsuna remained eerily calm, but he was also sweating at the same time. "D-Do as he says, Kiriyuu." He gave her a brief nod. "Make sure it's pointing at me though, alright?" He then whispered. He had some sort of plan.

She stared vacantly at him, and then nodded. As she bent over to place the bazooka down; her finger curled around the trigger, and she fired it. She closed her eyes and braced for impact; she still didn't know what the effect of the 10 year bazooka was. _I hope whatever plan you have works, Tsuna!_

Tsuna closed his eyes as soon as the shot was fired. He was expecting some kind of weird time-travelling experience, like flashy lights and his body being stretched and tossed around like a flimsy ragdoll through some strange _Star Wars-_like effects and portal – but nothing happened. He was still standing rigidly in the same spot as soon as he opened his eyes, with the flashlight fixated on the two of them like a spotlight.

But Kiriyuu was missing.

Their mysterious assailant coughed and spluttered as the smoke eventually withered away. "What the hell - ?!" He shone the flashlight towards the woman on the ground.

Tsuna's jaw dropped.

_NUUUU!! SHE HELD IT THE WRONG WAY!!_

_..._


	19. The Future Self of Ottuso Kiriyuu

**WARNING:** Mary-Sue alert. I really do wonder about the future of OC's in fanfiction nowadays. They're all going down towards the road of Mary-Sueness no matter what you do.

I suppose this story reveals a bit of the plot. Yes, I finally have a plot!!

**PS.** Ensure to read this chapter thoroughly. This chapter is pretty important, I, uh, guess...

**Chapter 19**

_The Future Self of Ottuso Kiriyuu_

He stared at her as she blinked unsteadily; his jaw almost practically fell off and landed onto the ground. His eyes bulged to the size of plates. "K-Kiriyuu?!"

_**BLAM!**_

The thug had fired a shot from his gun, which embedded into her chest, and Tsuna screamed as she toppled backwards. "Nooooo!!" He did that for many reasons: 1, she just got shot, and 2, if she got shot, there'll be no hope of him surviving afterwards against this thug if she was gone…. Still, Tsuna had no idea what TYL Kiriyuu was capable of.

But then -

A string of words in a language Tsuna did not understand flew out from her mouth, slightly muffled by a black gas mask that was thoroughly wrapped over her head, and he found himself immobilised in shock as she got back up, completely unharmed by the bullet. She pried it out of her stomach and flicked it away to the ground, still swearing in Italian.

She was wearing black; the outfit was identical to a military-style uniform – the ones with 'skirts'. The front of the blazer was decorated with elaborate patches and chains, silver buttons and zips with silver, shield-like, shoulder plates with an elaborate flower pattern embellished on it. The sleeves were tight around her thin, sinewy arms, and matching, leather black gloves covering her fingers had a strange, gold emblem over the back of the hand. Half of the length of her thighs was exposed from beneath the skirt, surprisingly with black shorts instead of black pants (black was too typical now) underneath. The length of her legs was further outlined by matching leather boots that almost stopped just a few inches under her shorts, exposing a small section of eggshell white skin. Everything she was wearing was black. This was future Kiriyuu?! Tsuna stared. She had her back to him; he couldn't make out the rest of her features due to the gas mask. What was up with it anyway?

Eventually, she switched to Japanese: "… I remember this… The Screamer Woods…" Her narrowed eyes then landed on the thug. "You. I remember _**you**_ very well."

He wondered what she would do. Whip out a gun and blast ten thousand tiny holes into the thug? Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't watch. Older Kiriyuu merely lifted a hand up, and then calmly lifted the other. A box was in that hand; a tiny, small square box, like a trinket box. She slotted it into one of her fingers and a dark, blood red coloured flame flickered.

"S-Stay back!" The thug fired another shot from his gun.

Everything went into slow-motion; the bullet flew towards her; Kiriyuu didn't move, except raise her arm upwards, and then – what the hell? A crossbow had materialised on her arm?! She released the snare trigger – and a small, needle-like arrow burst out from the strange crossbow contraption that had 'grown' over her arm that stretched from the weird box.

The arrow and bullet collided; the silver arrow tore through the bullet and -

Tsuna re-opened his eyes - and regretted it immediately.

The arrow embedded through the man's neck. He choked, retched, croaked out helplessly. MENTALLY SCARRED FOR LIFE! At least the death was rather flashy… But still... SCARRED FOR LIFE!! Tsuna clamped a hand over his open mouth and felt his stomach contents rise up from the back of his throat. He gagged at the sight –a fountain of blood burst forth from his neck and the man stared wide-eyed back at them. His body swayed slightly, and then toppled over the undergrowth. Dead. Just like that. There was an unsettling silence. Tsuna watched in shock, and revulsion; his eyes could not seemingly tear away from the body; a mixture of fascination and disbelief. What the hell just happened? He watched her cautiously.

"… Y-You killed him…"

The small crossbow on her arm was still glowing a demonic red as she lowered her arm, and pulled the box off her finger. The crossbow slowly vanished; Tsuna just stared. He didn't even see a crossbow attached onto her arm. Maybe it was hidden up her sleeve? He watched her kick at the unmoving body, pull the arrow from the victim's neck, and then turn around to face him, holding the bloody arrow, and the flashlight which she had also picked up from the body.

Tsuna scrambled back away from her, tripping over a tree root behind him and promptly landed on his bottom. "D-DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! I'M WARNING YOU!"

The gas-mask scared him. A solid, emerald eye watched him from the eyeglass, and she pulled off the mask. At first, he thought he saw Captain Caveman, or that hairy thing from _The Addams Family_. But then she pulled her back from her face, and his jaw dropped.

She didn't look like Kiriyuu – for once, her hair was…. **BROWN**. Not orange. No orange at all. It was a light, chocolate colour, like Bianchi's. It was definitely longer, and smoothed out in cascading waves over her shoulders and back. Her features were very fine, too. Soft-looking eyes, thick eyelashes, a slender jawline and thin lips. Aside from her brown hair, a long, thin scar running from her left jawline and vertically upwards, almost towards under her eye was also a very distinguishable feature of her. It was a tiny nick, pretty deep into the skin, but still clearly visible. He wondered how she got that. Must've been painful anyway, no doubt.

She placed her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one leg. "And you are…?" She said, raising an eyebrow.

_Run away!_ He thought with a trembling lip. _Run away and don't turn back! _But this was Kiriyuu. And she had just killed a man in front of him. His jaw dropped. She didn't recognise him? Tsuna gulped in response; he actually felt intimidated by her presence. "…K-Kiriyuu…?" Needless to say, he was terrified, yet slightly anxious, and eager to meet her.

She blinked at him, and then walked up to him, before leaning down, and inspected his face closer. Tsuna gulped once more as she finally stood back, her eyes slightly wide. "Oh, right… **_You_**."

Tsuna smiled awkwardly. "You recognise me?" _This Kiriyuu is really scary!! I prefer the Kiriyuu we have now!_

"Vongola." She merely said, her voice low as she crossed her arms over her chest. "… You look different."

"Oh, that's because you… um, 10 years in the past – which is now – hit herself with the bazooka by accident. I'm glad you recognise me!"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out already since I'm in this horrible place; it hasn't changed at all. And you - I just didn't realise how totsie you were back then. You're all spangly and whatnot - Eat more meat, boy."

"…Uh. Thanks for your concern?"

She cleared her throat. "Don't worry, you're safe now, Vongola. I hope you're not scarred; you should see these more often."

"I-I… I… I think I'm scarred."

"I hope your pants are dry too." She said.

Tsuna looked down at himself and gulped. "...T-They're dry…"

She sighed heavily at him. "Look, it's not the same where I come from – I've seen a lot of things. Drugs, raids, fights, stabbings, dismemberment, gun-shootings, you name it. There are people coming to my group wanting loans and when they can't give back that 10 million, then how can they pay? Well, a finger or two often works but usually, it's with their lives." She then turned to him, looking slightly thoughtful. "Oh, um… I was rambling. Sorry, you didn't have to hear that."

Well, at least that was still some aspect of Kiriyuu's habits that had remained – the ability to ramble. Tsuna swallowed. "But you still killed him – in a really flashy way too – "

TYL Kiriyuu huffed at him. "Well, either he die, or I die, or '**we die**', actually." She said to him in a matter-of-fact tone. "I don't hear any gratitude."

He bit his lip. Kiriyuu was making him feel awkward... "T-Thanks. U-Uh… But h-how did – I mean, he shot at you – "

She pulled her blazer apart slightly to reveal a vest-like contraption over her turtleneck. "Bulletproof vest, duh. They're completely useless against knife attacks, however. Then again, I'm not going to walk around in rickety chainmail…" She wrapped the blazer back over herself. Tsuna caught the glimpse of a crest on her breast pocket – the same one on her gloves; he didn't recognise the symbol at all, however. It certainly wasn't Vongola… Maybe it was the Giglio Nero's emblem…

"Oh…ehehe… wow, Kiriyuu, you're so strong in the future!"

She snorted. "Yeah, well, not really. That was nothing. Just beginner stuff, you know? And sometimes, as life goes on, it forces you to fight whether you like it or not. Ara, I remember what happened roughly around this time, Vongola. Back when I was 14 years old, Hibari and I split up all because of – " She paused, then – "Um. Never mind -_Cough_-"

Tsuna blinked. "Wait, never mind what? You and Hibari... have split up? But... why?"

She bit her lip tediously, now looking rather sweaty-looking. She hadn't heard Tsuna at all and was now muttering incoherently to herself in a dark corner. He sighed; yup, she was definitely Kiriyuu. "Oh crap, I've done it now..." She muttered feverishly to herself. "I've screwed up history. I wasn't supposed to kill that guy! Hibari was meant to come and save us! DAMN IT! WHERE THE (beep beeeeep) HELL IS HE?!"

Tsuna was now thoroughly amazed as he stuck a pinky into his ear. Yes, she had definetely swore, loud and clear. "What? Hibari was meant to save us?!"

TYL Kiriyuu whipped her head back round to him sharpish as she gawked back at him. She was still looking sweaty and flustered. Immediately, she twisted back round, huddling in the corner once more. "…A-Ah, crap, thinking out loud again as usual - I shouldn't have... Stupid! Inner monologues aren't good for one's health! Stupid, stupid, stupid Kiriyuu!" She then brusquely turned to Tsuna again and pointed a finger at him. "YOU! Pretend that never happened! You didn't hear anything or see anything, okay?!"

Tsuna nodded, then - "I like your uniform – what's with the gas mask?"

She nodded vigorously in response. "Good, you're co-operating – I mean - Oh? Um, this old thing that makes me look hideously fat? It's… nothing… really." She then giggled, hopping around on one foot to another. Tsuna now deemed this officially as the weirdest day in his life.

"It matches your uniform… and your rings – " He reached a finger to poke at the many, glittering rings on her fingers.

"DON'T TOUCH THE RINGS!" She screamed at him threateningly, retreating her hand back away from his. Tsuna leapt back as well, pulling his hand back in progress.

"S-Sorrie?" He squeaked out.

Kiriyuu looked down, her brown locks hiding her face. "…. N-Never mind, sorry about that sudden outburst… And, uh…I… I'm not really that strong. The crossbow is just for emergencies only. I-I don't think they'd be able to track me down, so don't worry."

_I wasn't exactly worried about that. What about the body?!_ Tsuna then noticed a different kind of ring on her finger. "Uh…. okay. Hey, is that an engagement ring?"

Kiriyuu went bright red, and covered her finger with her other gloved hand. She looked away from him, frowning slightly. "…Yes, so what of it?" She then replied back, rather reluctantly too.

"Are you engaged to Hibari – "

" - Okay, if I say 'yes', would you drop this issue?" She interrupted almost immediately.

"Sure."

"Then yes." She begrudgingly grumbled out.

Tsuna looked back up. TYL Kiriyuu didn't look friendly at all as she loomed over him. "R-Really? That's great! I'm so happy for you!"

She brandished a pocket knife from her pocket and was now pointing it threateningly at him. "I'm warning you, Vongola. DON'T YOU EVER SHOOT THE 10-YEAR-BAZOOKA AT ME AGAIN! YOU GOT THAT, YOU LITTLE WOTSIT?!"

"EEEK!" He leapt back in fright.

She wasn't finished yet: " - And don't you_** dare**_ let my 14-year old younger self touch it either, let alone go near it or you're going to be breathing through a hole in your neck made by this knife by the time I'm through with you!!" She snarled viciously at him, prodding a knife towards his direction that he flinched completely.

"Y-Yes, ma'am, sir!" Then he blinked, and looked back up curiously.

"Tsuna, _I mean it_."

She looked deadly serious, and he nodded. "Um… B-But why not…?" _What's happened in the future? Or Kiriyuu's future, more like it. Is something bad going on??_

TYL Kiriyuu then sighed, and rolled her eyes, then stuffed the knife back in the sheath at her belt. "… Look, it's a long story. I'm at a very inconvenient matter at the moment, alright? It was lucky you shot the bazooka at **this** time, if it was any other time then I'd be screwed, okay? In fact, everything would be screwed. You too."

"O-Okay…?" Tsuna nodded vigorously. "Uh … so what were you doing just then?"

"….Oh." She pursed her lips when she turned back round, and then she gave him a rather apologetic look. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you that."

* * *

Reborn lowered down Gokudera's binoculars as he watched the pair down below, and smiled slightly as he balanced himself on the branch of the tree.

"Kiriyuu's future self. Interesting. Perhaps she could be a loyal subject to Tsuna…"

* * *

"…You have any other questions for me – besides about you and/or the future?" Kiriyuu blinked at Tsuna with half-lidded eyes. There was an awkward silence for a brief moment, and she then perked up, then – "WHO'S THERE?!" She screamed, and made Tsuna scream in fright, as Kiriyuu threw a knife up towards a low tree branch to their slight left. There was a quiet rustle, then… nothing.

Tsuna held his breath and looked around.

"… Strange. I was pretty sure that someone was there… watching us…" She muttered to herself, scratching her head with the hilt of another knife.

_I think you're just paranoid!_ The Vongola finally blurted out something that had been nagging at him. "… Wait, you said you and Hibari split up, but you're engaged to him? Are you going to go back with him?"

Kiriyuu looked uncomfortable all of a sudden, and she avoided Tsuna's gaze. Kiriyuu became quiet all of a sudden. She looked… sad. He wondered what happened between her and Hibari in the future…

"Uh…." She finally began awkwardly. "Well, I guess I – Hey! I can't tell you! Sheesh, Vongola, you're awfully nosy about the future, aren't ya? Lemme guess, you're going to ask me if you married Sawada Kyoko in the future, right?"

Tsuna went bright red. "N-No, don't be silly, of course I won't. Whoever Kyoko wants to marry is entirely her own choice."

She gave him a look as she placed her hands back on her hips. She gave him a sour look in addition, her tongue pressed against a molar in her mouth.

"…Did she marry me?" Tsuna eventually asked expectantly, hopefully, wistfully. He grinned hopelessly at her.

Kiriyuu eyed him from the corner of her eye, like a vulture-stare, and shook her head. "Sorry. Can't tell you."

He slumped, and grumbled sourly under his breath.

"…. Vongola?" Kiriyuu had suddenly knelt down in front of him over the ground.

Tsuna blinked. "Kiriyuu…? What's wrong?"

She looked back down, that sad and forlorn look she had when he mentioned Hibari had returned over her features once more. "I'm… Sorry. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything." Then she looked back up at him, much desperately this time, however. "I really want to… but… I can't. Not now. And… because of that… It makes me feel so awful."

"No, it's okay. Besides, you also just saved my life back there." He said, laughing a little as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

She smiled, and Tsuna instantly felt more reassured. She then reached a hand to him – Tsuna shrunk – but then she patted his back, and he perked back up. "You'll be saving a lot more lives than I ever will, Tsuna." A somewhat strained, reassuring smile spread over her face, and Tsuna relaxed slightly. She was starting to look more like what Kiriyuu was supposed to be like.

Wait. What was that supposed to mean? He opened his mouth; he did want to know more. Kiriyuu looked so different in the future compared to what she looked like now. He wanted to ask her a lot of questions. What did she do? What happened to her? How could she kick like that? Did it really take 10 years for her to become so good? So many questions…

"I'm sorry if I scare you so much." She then sniggered at him.

He went bright red. "N-No, you don't scare me! You don't scare me at all!"

Before she could reply to that, TYL Kiriyuu vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced with the younger one; the one Tsuna was actually a lot more accustomed and used to. She bonked her head off the ground and sat back up, her head throbbing. "Owwww…."

"Kiriyuu, are you alright?" He asked. _Hmm, wonder what will happen if I tell Kiriyuu that she became like some sort of scary, sarcastic, cold-blooded mafia member in the future??_

"Y-Yeah, man, what a dream… whoa, Tsuna, where's that evil man? Eto, you took care of him all by yourself?! Waah, you're so strong!"

"U-Um, yeah, let's go back." He quickly said, scooping her off the floor. _Well, at least I know that Kiriyuu's pretty mature and reliable in the future…I wonder what made her change so dramatically?? _Tsuna helped her up, and she grinned at him in return. He sighed, collected the bazooka back up and loosened his shoulders a little, knowing that everything would probably be okay now.

Older, TYL Kiriyuu highlights according to Tsuna:

1. Clearly demonstrates a trait of overt and excessive paranoia and neurotica

2. Still retains the uncanny ability to ramble on an extreme scale

3. Conclusive evidence shows that she has coffee-brown hair, not jelly-orange

4. Decisive facial characteristics include vertical scar on left cheek, cruel eyes, didn't seem to smile a lot

5. Possesses an outwardly cold, distant, merciless and brutal human nature (but maybe there is something else to her that Tsuna didn't know yet)

6. The relationship between her and Hibari in future is to be ascertained even now. Presumably engaged(?)

7. Expert in utilising crossbows and daggers, not snipers (still to be confirmed)

Hmmm...

Tsuna pondered again. _Wait…. If Older Kiriyuu isn't working for the Giglio Nero, then who is she working for? Oh no… don't tell me it's the – VONGOLA?!_

"Um, Tsuna-chan, are you alright?" She conked on his forehead with her knuckles gently.

He looked like a zombie. She worriedly patted at his shoulder, and he burst out from his bubble, then laughed awkwardly at her. "Oh, um, what was I going to say again? Oh yeah - I wasn't as strong as you were, Kiriyuu."

"Eh?" She blinked at him, and then looked at her side as her fingers hit something hard as she tried to hoist herself up. "Ooh! A flashlight! Neat!"

……….

"I heard a gunshot, Juudaime." Gokudera said. "Is everything okay?"

Tsuna immediately began to sweat. "… It's a long story, Gokudera-kun."

Unfortunately, they still couldn't find Hibari. It was getting extremely late, so Tsuna and Kiriyuu headed back, only to find that Yamamoto and Gokudera had also returned, unsuccessful in their search. Everyone gazed off into the fire, silent. Tsuna decided not to tell Haru, Yamamoto or the babies about Older Kiriyuu just yet, and he didn't even tell Kiriyuu herself who didn't even seem to realise that she had swapped places with her future self. He just told Reborn and Gokudera. Tsuna handed back the bazooka to Lambo, making sure that Kiriyuu didn't get close to it. The gunshot was covered up with a story of Tsuna and Kiriyuu meeting up with a group of Big Pheasant Game Hunters bent on shooting ducks that evening. Kiriyuu went along with it without even thinking twice because she knew she was missing something for a five-minute period, and anything could've happened…

Back at camp, Haru looked awfully pale as she stared into the crackling fire that was almost licking at her heels, and Kiriyuu wrapped an arm around her gently. "They'll be okay."

"This is all my fault." Haru wept bitterly, "if only I kept a closer eye on her…"

"It's not your fault, Haru." Tsuna replied, and Haru stared off into the distance, dabbing at her eyes slightly. Kiriyuu handed her a hanky, which she blew her nose in and gave back to Kiriyuu – it was then left on the ground, untouched.

Kiriyuu bit her lip and looked down; she was extremely worried about Hibari now…

"And now the Screamer ghost will get to I-Pin and – "

Suddenly, the bushes from behind them rustled, and everyone turned round – Tsuna huddled behind Yamamoto, Gokudera got his dynamite out, and Kiriyuu went in front of Haru protectively; Hibari stumbled out, covered in leaves, twigs and some dirt. Kiriyuu thought a waterfall of water had bubbled up in her eyes as soon as she saw him; everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Well, that's one headache over.

"I found this." Hibari said, lifting something up –

It was I-Pin; he was holding her by the 'hair', and her eyes were all loveheart-shaped as she stared endlessly at Hibari from the side. Everyone leapt up from their seats and Haru jumped up in joy. "You found her!!"

"Hibari-san! You're the saviour!" Yamamoto cheered.

"You're such a nice person!" Haru sang.

"I can't believe Hibari-san helped us!" Tsuna squawked.

Gokudera grunted, while Reborn just smiled lightly. "Good job, Hibari."

He irked. Hibari certainly did not 'help' these goons.

"How did you find her?" Haru asked.

Silence.

"… It wouldn't leave me alone." He eventually grumbled back to her.

Oh, that was right, I-Pin's crush on Hibari. Kiriyuu realised that, but shrugged it off anyway. If she got jealous or angry over I-Pin, then that'd be pretty immature… Everyone laughed. Hibari's eye twitched. The sound of laughter and people having a good time... He didn't like it.

"Hibari Kyouya! You worried me sick!" A loud voice then screamed in his ear, and he flinched slightly. He turned to Kiriyuu, as she stepped back, huffing, her arms crossed over her chest, eyebrows tightly knitted together, teeth baring at him and hissing like an angry goose. "We went to look for you for ages! Do you know how worried I was, eto?!"

He dropped I-Pin on the ground, who ran up to the rest of the gang to celebrate her safe return. Then Hibari smacked Kiriyuu on the head.

"OW! Eh… Hibari, why are you back anyway? I thought you were angry at me and didn't want to see me anymore…" Kiriyuu then mumbled out dejectedly.

"The baby found me first – " Hibari gestured to Reborn, who was eating a sausage over the fire, and everyone groaned inwardly as they began to realise that their efforts had been probably meaningless. "Besides, he told me that there was a body to cover up. I will send the Committee over when we go back to school."

Yamamoto and Haru blanched. Kiriyuu's jaw dropped. "EH?! What?" She squawked in horror, shaking fiercely on the spot. "… This place really is haunted! Let's get out of here now!"

Before she could make a run back to her tent and pack her things, Hibari grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, almost choking her without even meaning to – actually, he did. "I also heard from the baby that it was you who killed him."

Silence.

Kiriyuu then burst into loud, obnoxious laughter, while Tsuna and Gokudera went deadly pale. "Ahh haaah haaah HAAAAH! Eto… That's funny. You're funny, Hibari. Me, kill someone? HAAAH!" She laughed, but no-one else was laughing. She stopped. No-one would even bother to tell how annoying she could be without even trying to. Kiriyuu's grin dropped slowly, and then she looked at up him fearfully. "… You're serious, aren't you?" She swallowed; of course he was! Hibari was always serious!! She then glanced back at Reborn, who wasn't looking back at her. Kiriyuu began to ponder, and Tsuna instantly started worrying.

Hibari had a headache, and she wasn't helping. "Stop talking already. Your voice is so annoying."

Kiriyuu blinked, then - "Hibari!!" She wailed heavily as she rubbed her head under the impact of his fist. "… You're back to normal!!" Then she leapt at him and threw her arms around him tightly.

He could barely keep her up. "Let go."

"Eto… You were jealous, right?" She said, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

"…." Hibari looked away. "No."

She watched him suspiciously, then grinned and quickly reached up, pecking him on the cheek. Hibari's eyes went wide. His eye twitched. Kiriyuu noticed, and sighed, let go of him before looking away awkwardly.

Tsuna began to worry all over again. _Future Kiriyuu said that she and Hibari weren't exactly together, even though they were seemingly engaged… I should do something to keep them the way they are now…_

Everyone stared at the two; Yamamoto chuckled while Tsuna continued to watch on in slight disbelief with an open, fish-mouth. Reborn had covered Lambo's and I-Pin's eyes (Kiriyuu would probably get a beating from I-Pin). Then Haru kicked a gawking Gokudera (with a cigarette almost falling out of his mouth) fiercely in the kneecap.

"GET THE CAMERA!!"

……………..

The day was finished with a group photo; Reborn congratulated Tsuna on his succession of completing the 'test of courage'. Well, it seemed everyone was alive at the end of the trip. The tripod was set up and everyone got into positions. Haru, with I-Pin on her head, grabbed Tsuna with Reborn on his head, who grabbed Yamamoto who stood beside Gokudera (despite his protests). Hibari was standing at the end with his back to the camera, though, while Kiriyuu was rammed beside Lambo and Gokudera.

The timer clicked down.

"Say CHEESE SPAGHET!"

_**-Flash-**_

Everyone cheered (except from Hibari), and then, a dandy-looking, cow-shirt guy with one eye closed who just materialised beside her from nowhere in a puff of smoke, with the 10-year-bazooka in his arms.

Kiriyuu turned to him, then - "Who the heck are you?!"

**EXTRA **

_(Yes, this chapter was supposed to end here but I decided to add a little on for your benefit)_

**Midnight…**

Well, at least Kiriyuu realised that Lambo would be more mature than he would be 10 years from now. Everyone retired to their tents a few minutes after the photo-shoot. Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto managed to cram in one tent, with Reborn taking tiny space, while Haru's tiny tent was filled with Lambo and I-Pin, and unfortunately for Kiriyuu; there wasn't enough space because of Lambo's 10-year-bazooka, so Kiriyuu stayed with Hibari, not that she really minded. It meant they got to share a tent together, which Kiriyuu was ecstatic about.

Kiriyuu packed her sleeping bag beside Hibari and then wiggled in, while Hibari zipped up the tent and then slipped into his own. "Hey, Hibari?" She asked, as she looked at the tent's blue ceiling.

"What?" He replied, turning to her; their bags were very close to each other.

"Where did you go? Did you see any ghosts?"

"I stopped beside a river. There were no ghosts; but I saw Sawada Tsuna and a woman. She threw a knife towards me but I dodged."

"Eh? A woman? She threw a knife at you?!"

Hibari didn't respond, but he was staring at Kiriyuu - longer than he usually did. She began to feel a bit uncomfortable and shrunk into her bag. "Um… Night, Hibari." She quickly turned away from him.

A few quiet, woodland seconds later complete with background music from cicadas and owls, and then –

_AAAAAARGHHHHHHH!! ARRRGHHHHH! AAAAAAARGHHHHH!!_

Kiriyuu snapped her eyes open; Hibari was still awake too. She felt a cold shiver run down her spine, and she peered from out of the sleeping bag, glancing around anxiously. "…. W-What was that?"

"Just get back to sleep." He mumbled back to her, tossing away from her in his sleeping bag.

"Y-You heard it too, r-right?" She stuttered out, her face paling.

He sighed. "Yes."

"O-Oh… Okie. I-I'm going to sleep anyway…" But she was still positively spooked. Kiriyuu shut her eyes again and tried to get back to sleep.

_ARGHHHHH! AAAAARGHHHHHH!_

Kiriyuu began to tremble and slowly inched towards Hibari's sleeping bag in her own like a caterpillar; he turned back to her; she was too busy trembling to look at him. From the slight transparency of the tent, she could make out in the distance that Haru's lamp had switched on. Kiriyuu looked up, and then scrambled out of her sleeping bag; and unzipped the tent door. Haru had poked her head out of the tent, and so had Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto and Reborn, all with their own lamps. Tsuna's hair was messy as always, Gokudera peeled off the cucumbers from his eyes, and Yamamoto rubbed tiredly at his eyes. It seemed everyone had been blissfully asleep until 'it' was heard.

"Alright, cut it out, Gokudera, with the screaming and stuff. You're scaring Lambo and I-Pin!" Haru snarled at the groggy-looking silver-haired guy from across the fireplace.

"…. You thought that was me?" Gokudera muttered out blearily.

"Of course! You're the one who's always – "

_AAAAAARGHHHHHH! ARRRRGHHHHHHHH! AAAARRRGHHHH!_

Those pained screams tore through the woods and echoed in the lonely sky. They sounded pretty far away, which was good. Wouldn't want some ghost to be marching through their camp now and claiming victims… Everyone froze; Haru was now staring wide-eyed at Gokudera. His mouth didn't open when the screaming was heard.

"Yeah – that's me. Convincing, huh?" He said, with half-lidded eyes.

Everyone now turned to Kiriyuu. She glared back at them. "WHAT? You guys think it's Hibari doing that? No way! Besides, I was with him when the screams started. And Hibari doesn't scream like that. He… He never screams." She began to ponder. Hibari – screaming…. It didn't seem to fit him. She was then roughly hit over the head with a soup ladle by Hibari, who had crawled out of his sleeping bag and was now sitting beside her.

"I-It's the ghost!! L-Let's get out of here!!" Tsuna squawked, and Reborn conked him over the head with a Leon-turned-spatula. It seemed Tsuna and Kiriyuu had a knack in getting hit over the head with kitchen cooking utensils.

"Silly Tsuna, even if we pack up and run, there are no buses at this hour to pick us up."

There was a rather unsettling silence amongst the camp. The agonizingly, bone-chilling screams started again, and everyone then quickly pulled their heads back in their tents, zipped it up shut and delved back into their sleeping bags, hoping the screams would stop.

Unfortunately, they didn't.

………………

Urgh… TYL Kiriyuu equals Mary-Sue (to me, she feels like one)… She doesn't seem like a very nice character either. I hope she wasn't too 1D though!


	20. The Godfather

Lol, another chapter title movie pun. I think the title of the very first chapter of this story is actually a TVB series all about hitmen from ancient Asia. I'm not too sure…. I'll make a check.

I've never seen the anime series so I don't know anything! I only follow the manga! It's the most original so I just stick with it.

**Chapter 20**

_The Godfather_

Tsuna sighed. "Well, at least everyone's still alive and NOT taken and cannibalised by a vengeful, murderous ghost."

The camping trip was finally over. Yes, everyone was still alive. Nobody managed to sleep that night when the eerie screaming began, and Kiriyuu didn't know if Hibari was ever jealous of Yamamoto or not. That was much more of a mystery than the mystifying, disturbing screaming noises. They never encountered any ghosts in the woods, either, despite the screaming that went all of the nights of the trip and would forever scar them in their minds. Luckily, they did manage to leave the forest and return back to Namimori where it was safer and presumably less haunted. So Tsuna did complete his mission; everyone had survived. The souvenir photos Kiriyuu took home were the one of Hibari and Kiriyuu, with some unknown, musty figure standing beside them, and the group photo that was copied and handed to everyone, which featured three, unknown, ghostly figures with no faces standing behind Tsuna and Lambo.

A few days later back in Namimori, Tsuna called everyone and recounted his tale of how the toilet flushed in the bathroom in the middle of the night when there was nobody there. Poor Tsuna. Another unwelcomed guest. Kiriyuu provided him hefty supplies of Italian exorcism talismans and scriptures to ward off unwanted evil.

Back at the Hibari house, Kiriyuu and Hibari were locked in a battle of the wits called Chess, there was a knock on the door. Kiriyuu was losing already – that'd be her twenty-fifth loss to Hibari of the day, a new record aside from her Sole Calibur one – and got up, using this excuse to declare that the game was over because she had to get the door and therefore escape from a painful and senseless beating-up session courtesy of Hibari afterwards.

She didn't know why he did that to her without a proper reason. It was sort of like a weird habit of his now.

"No, I'll get it." Hibari shoved her out of his way and went to open the door. Kiriyuu was left lying on the ground, crash and burned. Once at the door, he certainly hadn't been expecting a tall man with short, dark brown hair in his mid-thirties, in a smart, well-ironed black suit and…. A gas mask. His hold tightened over the briefcase as he stood there. He looked like a salesperson – those shady ones trying to sell monoblock driveways and conservatories – only with a gas mask. Very suspicious.

A girl was staring back at him, too. Roughly around Kiriyuu's age (probably), with raven black hair flecked with hot red streaks that reached her shoulders. She wore punk-styled clothes, with tight jeans and checkered converses. A pink bubble blew from her mouth, popped, and she sucked it back in, chewing on her bubblegum profusely as her heavily eye-shadowed eyes blinked sluggishly.

Before Hibari could slam the door in their faces, the man spoke.

"Buon pomeriggio," The man said in fluent Italian, taking off his quirky gas mask to reveal a thick, bushy moustache, and scary, ruby-red eyes. He also had a long scar across his forehead that screamed 'DON'T F--K WITH ME' – Hibari was unimpressed, however. The man continued, "Sto cercando Kiriyuu."

Suddenly, there was an estranged, anguished cry of disbelief from behind Hibari, and he turned round. Kiriyuu had gotten up from the floor, her mouth agape, eyes sparkling. "Guiseppe?! ELIA?!"

"Kiriyuu-dono!"

They glided towards each other with arms out and more sparkly eyes – Hibari swore he could see a swirling pink background of clouds and birds and a field of daisies behind them - and Kiriyuu then glomped the man, and he swung her around in the air, earning delighted laughs from the girl. The emo-looking girl just scoffed, rolled her eyes and moped in the sidelines. Hmm, this was weird. They started talking in Italian again, and Hibari was left in the sidelines, until Kiriyuu turned her attention from the man who was waaay taller than her.

"This is Guiseppe. He is my Uncle and my Godfather, and he looked after me for two years after my mother and father split up; my 'carer'. This is Elia, Guiseppe's adopted 12 and a half year old hormonally and emotionally unstable daughter, aka his new care-ee, and ala my apprentice -cough- _sort of_. Her skills are so-so, and since I am much better, I took pity on her and took her under my wing. She has a lot to catch up on, muhohoho-hoho-hooha!"

"……" Hibari was still unimpressed. Apprentice?

"She doesn't know Japanese, so it's okay." Kiriyuu said. Guiseppe craned his head to Elia, who had began yammering away in Italian. Her voice was really croaky and rough. Guiseppe turned to Kiriyuu, and spoke in Italian again.

Finally, Kiriyuu turned to Hibari. "Hibari, Guiseppe said that Elia thinks that your head looks like a grapefruit."

Silence. Hibari's eye twitched visibly. Like as if he really needed to know that. No sarcasm there.

"Oh, so you are _Hibari Kyouya_. My humble apologies." The man spoke in perfect Japanese – a lot better than when Kiriyuu first came. Her Japanese was rubbish. "I was suspicious, at first."

Suspicious? What for? Hibari was the least suspicious person ever –well, sort of. He shoved the hidden tonfas further into his sleeve away from the man for the moment. "……" Hibari never said anything in return. 'Friendly' wasn't exactly in his nature. He didn't like the way how this man named Guiseppe had said his name – the tone sounded distrustful, doubtful – like the way how Hibari spoke most of the time to Kiriyuu. He never trusted her.

Speaking of the Kiriyuu, she could not stop smiling. Compared to Elia who was brooding darkly in the corner, she was a shining sun of light and happiness. "It's so great that you're here – eh… so why are you here?"

"Your mother sent orders to me to come, of course." Guiseppe said, "Otherwise I wouldn't be wearing this fancy suit, bwahaha-haha-hoho!"

What obnoxious laughter, Hibari thought, until Kiriyuu laughed along with him – and they laughed together. More obnoxious laughter. Elia sighed and rolled her eyes again, blowing another bubble from her gum.

"Come in, come in! Tell me what's going on back home! How is your retirement coming along? I thought Elia was still in school?"

Kiriyuu's ignorance and horrible manners were really starting to show – she shoved Guiseppe inside without even consulting to Hibari first. Was he okay with having this complete and random stranger being let into his house? Of course not! Kenji the caretaker who he hadn't seen for a long time was now an exception!

Hibari followed the two shortly, and Guiseppe stared around the house, inspecting the Chessboard, Kiriyuu's doggie bowl, the strange torture-device on the floor with some dried blood, then at Kiriyuu's plastered nose.

"Oh, my retirement's going on smoothly. Elia wanted to visit you, so I took her with me…. Hey, what happened to the Tomaso you dated? I heard he came to Namimori several weeks ago."

"Um. He's history."

"Good! I disliked him anyway! Hmmm… Kiriyuu-dono, the place you live in…. it is… suspicious." Guiseppe directed that to Hibari again.

"Eh, Guiseppe, Hibari's okie." Kiriyuu said, as they sat down on the floor, showing Hibari a thumbs up. So uncool. He would've gladly ripped that thumb off her hand.

"It's peaceful here. What do you do to pass time?"

"Um. A lot of stuff! Hibari and I play games! Like Chess! But mostly, we play fun games!" She exclaimed madly, waving her arms around frantically in the air.

_Violent games_, Hibari thought. Like Hide and Sneak, Maul of War, Cops and Killers, Bloody Red Rover, and so on. No, not really. Well, Maul of War did happen once; it left Kiriyuu scarred, physically and mentally.

"What's with the gas mask?" Kiriyuu asked, pointing to the breathing contraption in his hand.

"Oh, this? It's nothing. Just a gimmick."

"Regular people don't wear gas masks in the streets." Hibari said.

Kiriyuu piped up beside him. "Can I try it on, Guiseppe?"

"Of course, Kiriyuu-dono."

"Fweee!" She made a weird, chirpy sound, and plopped the mask over her head. Then she breathed heavily through the gas mask and glanced at Hibari. "Hibari…. I... AM YOUR FATHER! Hey, I can talk like Darth Vader!!"

Hibari and Elia sighed. Kiriyuu stopped, as Elia turned to Hibari, who was still glaring with half-lidded eyes at Kiriyuu. Kiriyuu then blinked. "Um, Hibari, sit away from Elia. Please." Kiriyuu said, glaring at Elia all of a sudden. Cough-she wasjealous-cough.

"Hmmm…." Guiseppe began again as Kiriyuu went away to play with the gas mask. Elia was just inspecting the TV and knocking on it with a clenched fist for some odd reason, then pressing her ear against the dusty screen. "Hibari-san, I need to ask you this very important question."

He pulled his eyes from the emo-girl who was still tapping on his TV, then to the other girl who was making faces at herself in the mirror stuck on the wall at the landing, and finally back to the middle aged man. "What?"

"Did you or did you not, take Kiriyuu-dono to Disneyland? It has always been her dream to go to Disneyland at least once."

"…. No. We don't have that much money."

Guiseppe gasped, immediately turning to Kiriyuu with his face aghast. "And you're okay with this guy?!"

Kiriyuu nodded anyway, before turning to Hibari with a sorely disappointed look on her face. "I thought you were _rich_, Hibari."

"I'm 15 years old."

Elia snorted. Kiriryuu turned to Elia, curious.

"…. Hmm…" Guiseppe began his intense scrutiny of Hibari again. "Alright, Hibari Kyouya, I hereby acknowledge to you, that you are taking reasonable care of Kiriyuu-dono." Guiseppe added. Hibari raised an eyebrow. What was going on? The old man wasn't finished just yet: "But unfortunately, I'm afraid you won't be seeing each other for a very long time after today."

"E-Eh?" Kiriyuu stopped monkeying around and grinning like an idiot, then blinked dumbly at Guiseppe. "What do you mean?"

He turned to Kiriyuu, and smiled genuinely, showing a few wrinkles. "I'm afraid you won't be able to see Hibari anymore, Kiriyuu." He opened his briefcase, rummaging through it for a short moment.

"Why not?"

"Because he's going to _**die**_, right here and NOW!"

Suddenly, a flying dagger was aimed expertly towards Hibari's direction; one eyelid flickered – Hibari immediately shielded himself with his tonfa, it hit against the cool metal, making a loud 'CLANG!', and the dagger flew in another direction to the wall, impaling a portrait of a guy who had been impaled. It doubled the dramatic effect of Hibari's disturbing picturesques in his home. Elia giggled.

"You're making a mistake, old man."

"Of course he is!" Kiriyuu screamed, and then she clutched at Guiseppe's arm, trying to get him to stop. "Guiseppe! Stop this at once! Stop your cruel, sick horrible joke! Don't kill Hibari!"

"I'm sorry, Kiriyuu-dono, but your mother and the family have lost faith in you and have sent me to retrieve you - and finish your mission for you instead – if I feel like it, that is."

That must mean that Guiseppe did feel bloodthirsty today. And thirty for Hibari's blood, too. "Noo! I sent you a letter! I sent madre a letter! She should've gotten it! I explained that – "

" – You were in Disneyland, which Hibari-san had just clearly said that he had never taken you to."

"I… I didn't mean to lie, it's just…"

"Kiriyuu-dono, be quiet and keep to the side. He is too strong for you. We are already unpleased with your work as it is; what has happened? You were so diligent and committed in the academy; you have defied the family by letting this insolent whelp live for more than intended."

Hibari rolled his eyes. Insolent whelp? That was new.

Guiseppe continued. "Or do you want to defy me too?!"

Kiriyuu went silent, and shrunk away, terrified. Elia giggled. Kiriyuu bit her lip, and looked at the floor. "…N-No… I'm sorry…"

The fight ensued – even Elia joined in. She took out her blob of gum and tossed it at Hibari – then it did the most amazing thing Kiriyuu had ever seen before in her life – it exploded!? Hibari dodged it.

"Exploding chewing gum?!" Kiriyuu squawked. "Not you too, Elia!" _Hmm… now I want some too…Exploding gum. Mmm…_

Guiseppe was a connoisseur in handling daggers and other pointy objects – any weapon with a blade would do for him. Kiriyuu couldn't bear to watch – Guiseppe slashed furiously and quickly towards Hibari's direction as Elia threw more blobs of exploding gum at him; he ducked the blob and lurched a tonfa crashing towards Elia – she caught the hit dead-on in the side of the head and went pencil-rolling to the side, almost to Kiriyuu's feet. She stepped away from Elia. Hibari then sent a tonfa towards the old man's gut – which Guiseppe blocked with his authentic, butcher-like sabre with his other hand. It was horrible to watch, really. One swipe with that huge thing Guiseppe had and Hibari's arm would be severed off.

Kiriyuu remembered the briefcase Guiseppe had brought with him; while the fight had them going through everywhere of Hibari's house and basically trashing everything up – Kiriyuu dived for the briefcase, and opened it up completely. She ransacked through the contents, finally finding an important-looking Fax, and a Memo.

"No way… this is from the Giglio Nero Top-Secret Information Base. This is confidential stuff! Better keep it …." She rammed the Memo into a secret-two part section of her bra (learned that from _Xena, the Warrior Princess_ – inspired Kiriyuu while watched on weekend mornings with Hibari when bored or not being beaten senseless).

Next, Kiriyuu found a gun – a typical Micro 40mm - and she grinned, before standing back up, and she cocked the gun, before pointing the nozzle to her temple. "STOP IN THE NAME OF OTTUSO KIRIYUU!!" She yelled. No-one stopped. Kiriyuu grumbled, then tried again. "STOP OR I'LL SHOOT MYSELF!!"

Guiseppe stopped first – then Hibari. "Kiriyuu-dono - ?!" Guiseppe squawked out, before gawping at the suitcase beside her, and Elia stopped as well. "Damn, I knew I should've childlocked that thing!"

"You left it open anyway!" She yelled back at him.

"Put. The. Gun. Down. And no-one gets hurt, Kiriyuu-dono."

"Guiseppe. I mean it. Don't kill Hibari, and leave right now, or I'll blow my brains out." Kiriyuu said, very bravely, too. Though her quaking knees that were clattering against each other gave her nervousness away immediately to both of them…

"Oh really? And what about Hibari-san?"

Kiriyuu looked down, a bit forlorn. She guessed it was time to face the truth. "He… He probably wouldn't care anyway…" She mumbled out quietly; it actually wasn't intended for anyone to hear… But Hibari heard.

Outside, the sky began to turn a bit grey. The house darkened immediately as a black cloud covered the sun. When she said that, Hibari felt something pang inside him. It felt… strange. He barely acknowledged it, however. He refused to.

"Kiriyuu-dono – Don't."

"Please… don't kill Hibari."

"And why is that? You…. like him?" There was a slight pause. Guiseppe's jaw dropped. "You DO like him!"

"NO! Not that – I mean… Well, because… this is, um, Hibari's house and… I like it here. I don't know why… but… it's nice. And now that you've come… you've… you've ruined everything." She squeaked at him. "You ruined Hibari's house – and you broke my favourite dinner bowl."

Guiseppe looked at his shoes, where bits of broken shards of glass from Kiriyuu's doggie bowl remained. "… But I'm your _godfather_! What's so great about living here anyway?! It's too rural, hot, and the Japanese language is too high-pitched compared to Italian."

Hibari's eye twitched. Kiriyuu growled as she cocked the gun. It went with a loud 'click' as she squeezed her eyes shut, the nozzle pressed tightly over her temple. "Fine, I'll just shoot myself and everything would be over!"

Elia just grinned in anticipation, and whipped out her phone, switching to camera mode.

"…. Kiriyuu-dono, as I said before, I'm not just here to finish your job." Guiseppe said, holding his arms out as if to reason with her. "Okay. Fine, there is another way for things. Hibari doesn't have to die. **I **won't kill Hibari, if he means that much to you. I don't like killing little boys anyway. But you must come back with me."

Kiriyuu glanced down at the floor, sullen. "Y-Yeah, I know."

"No, you don't." Guiseppe said, deadly serious. "They're coming for you, Kiriyuu-dono. If they find you like how I did, they wouldn't hesitate to be invited in. They could even kill you. Because you _failed_."

"And how'd you know they won't kill me if I go back?"

"Because I'm here for you, Kiriyuu. I can negotiate with them; I can even talk to our Boss about this. I can try and reason with him. I protect you. Hibari cannot do anything like that for you."Guiseppe paled a bit, then quickly spoke again. "What about Hibari-san? Think about him! I'll let him go, but they… They won't let him go that easily! If you leave with me now, you both may be spared!"

"So if I go, we'll both… _live_…?"

He sighed. "… I will negotiate with them! I care nothing but you and Elia's safety!" Guiseppe looked at Kiriyuu, almost pleadingly. "Kiriyuu-dono, I'm your Godfather for Pete's sake! I know what's best. I'll take you back to Italy and explain, and maybe they can even get you off Hibari's case. Heck, maybe they don't need him dead anymore so everything would be okay!"

Elia sneezed. You know, they were talking as if Hibari wasn't even there.

Kiriyuu still felt dissuaded. "…. I… I know. And... I'm sorry. But -- "

"Just go." Hibari said, and the three hitmen looked at the boy who had been ignored for the past five minutes. "It's about time you left back to Italy anyway. All you did was take up more breathing space, a bedroom, food and water. Your burden here is done. Go now; I don't want to ever see you again."

The girl went deadly silent at that point.

He said that as if he… he really meant it. He _did_ mean it. Hibari didn't even stammer of hesitate when he said that. That meant only one thing – _he meant it_. Hibari always said things he meant. He meant it with all the bottom of his heart – if he had one, that is. Kiriyuu had frozen up on the spot immediately. Kiriyuu's lip wavered dangerously; her eyes beginning to water. Everything that happened between them seemed to have been grinded into dust and withered away with the wind, hopelessly gone, permanently. Everything that happened between seemed… worthless. Was that what Hibari thought too?

"Y-You're just saying that." She muttered out wobbly to him.

"Oh, really? Then why did you have your doubts earlier on? You said I wouldn't care if you left. And I don't. So leave now."

Kiriyuu's eyes widened when she heard that. She heard it loud and clear. This time, the house was completely silent. No water rushing, no frogs, no crickets. Not even a pin dropping. Elia didn't even laugh as she always did. She trembled. She felt afraid.

"I don't under – "

"I told you to get lost."

Kiriyuu swallowed as the sky suddenly began spewing rain down, the raindrops battering off Hibari's roof and down onto the open porch. A flicker of lightning then went by, followed by a low rumble of thunder. The rain intensified outside. Kiriyuu swallowed again.

But… She liked him so much. So… Didn't he feel ANYTHING?! Wasn't there something?

_Anything…?_

Well, if he wasn't called Hibari Kyouya, he probably would've felt something.

_So… that's… _

_That's it?_

Kiriyuu felt as though everything no longer felt important to her anymore. She should've just died when she was shot with the Dying Will bullet – quick and painless. How did a game of violent Chess end up like this? She began to quiver fiercely, as she sucked in her bottom lip. She felt like she was going to cry. She didn't let herself. No matter what.

She would never let Hibari Kyouya see her cry.

"F-Fine!" Kiriyuu screamed angrily, her voice wavering dangerously. She held the gun at Hibari, aiming it directly to his forehead. He didn't make any attempt to defend himself. Sweating and trembling, her finger curled near the trigger. "I hate you! **I HATE YOU!** Always have, always will -- and I never want to see you again either!"

Hibari watcher her squarely back in the eye. The look he was giving her was one of 'Go on, I dare you to shoot me_'_. She hesitated. _Do it! Kill him! And everything would be over. I can go home, I can live peacefully. I can… go back to my old life. Shoot him in the head right now! That's why I'm here! That's why I'm here in Namimori!_

_Or… is it?_

Kiriyuu wavered; she still didn't have the heart to kill him. And then she let out a sharp cry of anguish, before throwing the gun down; it clattered towards Guiseppe, who stuffed it back safely from her reach into his belt.

"Come on, Kiriyuu-dono! He's not worth your time anymore! We'll go back and speak to our family. Everything will be made clear!" Guiseppe hissed sharply at her as he dragged her out of the door to the corridor.

Kiriyuu pulled her arm out of his grasp, standing dejectedly in the doorway. "I'll kill you someday, Hibari Kyouya!" She yelled at him, and then turned away and ran out, out of the house and towards the front lawn. Hibari looked unfazed as usual.

And then, Elia giggled.

…………

Hibari was left with nothing but a trashed house – the smell of rain was wafting into his house, too. He had left his front door open; he also let her bedroom door open, too. Her bedroom was empty by that time – presumably used for storage like beforehand again. Then again, it had never been 'Kiriyuu's bedroom'.

She left angrily in the rain, with a desperate Guiseppe trying to cover her with an umbrella, but she went without one out of the Hibari Residence, while they waited for a taxi. She didn't say a word to him and just shoved her suitcase out of the front door. She even took out her wet laundry from the washing machine that had still to be hung dry and took them with her. She took out a fistful of savings which she had been saving for a Disneyland trip again and threw them on the floor.

She even took her homework.

Nothing mattered to her anymore. She hated boys now; she deduced. Love sucked and was for losers. She would never fall in love again. Love just ate away at people until they died of a broken heart. Love was a curse. She hated the one who made her experience love.

She hated him.

She hated his coldness.

She hated his ruthlessness.

She hated his inconsiderate, uncaring attitude and those horrible mixed signals she received.

She hated Hibari Kyouya.

She hated everything about him!

_I hate him I hate him I hate him! He should crawl into a ditch and die!! _

Or maybe it was her fault. Maybe it had nothing to do with him. Maybe she was too stupid that he hadn't sent her signals at all and she had imagined everything up. Maybe she was schizophrenic, obsessive, strange, idiotic. Idiotic to think that Hibari Kyouya would ever like her, Ottuso Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole of the Giglio Nero. She was a hitman and he was her assigned target; of course it wouldn't work out. Then again, maybe she was also crazy to hold the hopeful thought that Hibari could've liked her back too at some point, cousin or not. How did she even think that?

That was it. She was too weak and stupid for him. Hibari would like someone much more smarter and someone with prowess – and maybe a nicer body and finesse. Kiriyuu was a fluke, a joke. She sniffled, experiencing a severe attack to her self-esteem. But she thought it was true. It was all true. She was… nothing. She wasn't like Kyoko. She wasn't like Haru. Nowhere near like Bianchi.

She was crazy to have thought that she and Hibari had a chance.

Elia walked up to her, and patted her shoulder. Kiriyuu didn't budge. The rain was washing away her mascara, she didn't seem to notice. The girl was completely drenched because she refused an umbrella and a plastic bag propped over her head. Elia handed Kiriyuu a piece of gum. Kiriyuu shook her head in response. She let the rain hide her tears, and didn't look one more time back at Hibari's house. She didn't want to remember it anymore.

Elia sidled away, shrugging at Guiseppe who stood under the shelter of the low roof of the wall.

Once they would arrive at the airport, they would queue up immediately, because Guiseppe had the plane tickets ready in advance; Business Class back to Italy, where Kiriyuu would be spending her life in Genoa again, studying and not even a proper family aside from Guiseppe, who wished Hibari good luck though, and said, if he felt a prickly pain in his leg the next day; it'd be because Kiriyuu made a Voodoo doll of him. Elia grunted at him and made a weird gesture with her fingers (not with two fingers or one, specific middle finger). He didn't understand; like as if he wanted to understand anyway. He kicked them out of the door. Kiriyuu kicked herself out, without his help.

He'd never see Kiriyuu again.

The room she had been sleeping in was really empty now – it even didn't smell like Kiriyuu anymore. He had a few more pinked shirts he still hadn't had her de-pink yet. Plus, the 'chocolate' she made for him the other day wasn't decomposing properly in his garden's Compost Bin. What the hell was that thing made out of anyway? It looked poisonous enough to kill an elephant.

Finally, he'd be rid of someone fighting with him over the bathroom and the TV on a Saturday morning. He could now watch something decent and not 'Xena, Warrior Princess' or 'Starla and the Jewel Riders'. He could now cook for and only for himself without having to make an extra portion. Now he could do his homework in peace and he didn't have an annoying 'cousin' to put up with and her inability to learn about Japanese proverbs.

He should actually be feeling glad that Kiriyuu was leaving.

But...

…. _But what?_

The house felt devoid again; usually, it'd have Kiriyuu's annoying laughter most of the time. It actually did make a difference if there was a women's touch around the home. Well, Kiriyuu wasn't really a woman – she was still going through puberty. At least he hadn't found tampons or towels stuffed in his bin yet.

So how did a game of violent Chess end up like this?

Hibari picked up his trashed desk and made it stand up. Now he'd have to go and get another desk again. He got rid of Kiriyuu's Doggie bowls remains, even though he was a bit hesitant as he faced the kitchen bin with the shovel, and frowned. He dropped the shovel and left the kitchen.

What was wrong with him?

………..

"Please stop crying now, Kiriyuu-dono."

She couldn't seem to stop. Hot tears continuously dribbled from the corner of her eyes even though she tried her best not to. Elia sighed again and further hid her head underneath her cat-ear hood, while listening to thrashing, rock-hard metal pop that was playing on her iPod.

"… Shoulda killed him when I had the chance…" Kiriyuu mumbled under her breath.

"You're just saying that." Guiseppe said. "I hope that's not how you solve problems – by killing people – that's not the right way to vent your anger, Kiriyuu-dono."

She just grumbled incoherently.

"I know he hurt you, but you should remember that your mother has already picked your future husband and – " Guisepped said, holding out a picture of a plump, chubby boy with buck teeth and a hunchback and giving it to her, before being interrupted by Kiriyuu. "He's been waiting for you for 4 years. Ever since that Tomaso left, we thought it was a golden opportunity. His family is very rich. He would make you happy."

She cried harder.

"… Or maybe not."

"I'm not crying because of that." The girl hiccupped, as she shoved the picture away. Elia grabbed it off her, and giggled again.

"I see. He hurt you deeply by his words. But that's what I meant."

She cried even harder. Elia made a funny, snorting noise.

He dabbed at her eyes with the cloth as they sat back in the taxi's seat, going through the bridge that led to the airport. "Don't cry; there are plenty of more things for you in the future, Kiriyuu-dono."

"No there isn't. My future is bleak, Guiseppe. You're leaving us, too, afterwards, with Elia. I don't want to be left alone."

"W-Well… I honestly can't say, Kiriyuu-dono. We're almost here. Don't worry; leave everything about Namimori behind you."

…………

Dun dun duuun! Hibari and Kiriyuu have split up!? Um, I hope you don't find my chapters too long... :(


	21. Return of the Cuckoo

**Chapter 21**

_Return of the Cuckoo_

Kiriyuu woke up with a rough jerk. She dreamt she became a nun in ten years time. She looked around, sweating and uneasily. No, she wasn't 10 years older. She was still measly 14 years old; high-pitched and nasally. Not old and cranky. And definitely not a nun. She was still in the taxi to the airport.

Ready to leave Namimori…  
…To become a nun.

Perhaps.

Kiriyuu nibbled down on her lip. She deemed herself to be unable to get a boyfriend in the future, or even get married, have kids. Or get a good, well-paying job. Grumbling as the taxi eventually pulled up to the carpark, Kiriyuu rubbed her head groggily. _Weird dream. I'm too young to start regretting! If I regret so many things, I'll end up like Tsuna, who'll have loads of creases in his forehead when he's only 20 years old! _

They bustled out of the taxi with their luggage. Guiseppe was beside Kiriyuu and helped her with her suitcase. "Why did you bring Elia with you? I thought she hated travelling abroad, and that she was still studying in the Academy. Besides, I never really got on with her back in Italy. She used to try and kill me a lot. She's kinda toned down a bit, actually."

"She wanted to go to Japan. Besides, she has matured, doesn't want to kill you anymore and I couldn't leave her by herself." Guiseppe brought a trolley over, and grabbed Elia's arm before she could wander off. Said girl began grumbling under her breath as her eyes strayed to the Video game arcade. "She's like a little fledgling that hasn't left the nest, you know. Like a baby bird. And no, Elia, no video games this time. I have no more Japanese cents left."

Kiriyuu followed her small family drearily. _Birds… Hibari associates himself with birds… Hibari… WAHHHH…… I suppose I should congratulate I-Pin. Hibari is hers for the taking now… But… if they get married, I guess I have to attend. Maybe they won't even bother to invite me. I don't think I-Pin even knows my name…._

She snivelled drearily and tried to remain her posture. She left the rest of her thoughts to be thoughts. They queued for about half an hour to get checked in, despite being in Business class. The horrible weather outside meant their flight had the possibility of being delayed for the time being. "… And-And…What's with her clothes anyway?" Kiriyuu asked instead, as they went up the escalator, once flight check-in was over.

Elia blinked at them.

Kiriyuu shook her head at her, prattling on and on in shrilly, squirrel, rabid-fire Japanese. "I've never seen clothes like that before. Her clothes are all over the place – look at all those belts! Her trousers have holes! What's that thing sticking out from her nose? It's shiny…? She looks hideous! And her hair! Looks like she's stuck her head in a blender!"

He sighed. "It's just a phase. She likes rock music, drawing, voodoo dolls and exploding chewing gum."

"Oh. What am I into?" Kiriyuu then murmured to herself. She deduced that she was probably into manga, bishounens, clothes, Hibari, hitmen-stuff, sniper rifles, sadistic people and Hibari. That was perhaps even more strange. "Guiseppe, what's happening in Italy at the moment?"

"Let's just say a lot of things happened after you left to Japan."

"Oh yeah, like what?"

Guiseppe pondered for a moment. "Well, when we go back to Italy, you'll notice that there have been a few changes, too. You will even have room-mates!"

"WHAT? But why? Don't tell me the family's growing? Who are the newcomers?"

"Well, actually, you'll see soon enough for yourself."

"And why is this happening?" Kiriyuu didn't like the fact of having room-mates at all.

Guiseppe swallowed. "For, um… well, this is what they called it at the meeting: 'Preparation'. They said it's all part of some plan, like strategic planning…"

"Strategic planning? Oh, like long-term plans and high-risk decisions?"

"Yes, yes, quite. The plan is meant to span for a total of 10 years starting from now, before being put into action."

"And what is this plan?"

"I'll tell you when we return – actually, I don't know a lot myself, but I know this; they'll start assigning us into different squads. They've even decided to call us by one name – 'Black Spell'."

"Huh? But we're the Giglio Nero. Not the 'Black Spell'. Feh, it's a dodgy name. The 'Black Spell Famiglia'." Kiriyuu didn't understand anything Guiseppe was spewing forth at the moment. Maybe someone else had taken over the Giglio Nero and was incorporating new rules – but their current boss was quite powerful, and had very little enemies, so what was going on? And how come Kiriyuu didn't know anything about this? "Eto… What else is going on?"

"Apparently, they're also changing what, um… _level_ of hitmen we are. By that, I mean, they're going to put us into Ranks according to our performance. There will be rigorous tests and recruitment."

"_Ranks_? Oh no, I'm going to be at the bottom rank… I just know it."

Elia sneered. Kiriyuu glanced at her cautiously.

"You'll be fine." Guiseppe reassured. They loaded their luggage into the X-Ray conveyor belt machine; however, being a skilled hitman, much skilled than Kiriyuu, obviously, Guiseppe had cleverly disguised all of his knives, weapons and other mafia-only things along with Kiriyuu's things, such as her tell-tale Sniper gun she received from Reborn. Elia didn't have any bags with her. She was looking especially half-dead – like a zombie. God, she looked dreadful.

"Nice gas mask, sir."

"Um, thank you." Guiseppe smiled helplessly at the officer. Guiseppe had never seen his little god-daughter look like that before in her life. This Hibari Kyouya really was some boy with a big impact to make her end up like that. Or maybe this was Kiriyuu just being hungry. She sometimes had that face on when she hungry. But not this time. Usually, Kiriyuu's mood was sunken-low off the chart. Nothing seemed to bring the girl down. But alas, she was too naïve, and she lost in a dangerous two-player, sometimes three, or four, or even five-player (if possible) game called 'Love', and now suffered the dramatic consequences of a broken heart. "Are you okay with this? You never said goodbye to your other friends."

"It's okay. I… I didn't really want to. There'll be too many questions."

"Oh. Well, okay then." Guiseppe pressed the photo of Kiriyuu's future husband in her hand. Her eye twitched feverishly and she threw it into the nearest bin.

Guiseppe watched her. "That wasn't very nice."

Elia scoffed again.

Kiriyuu still looked like a zombie, and then she sighed. "I've decided, Guiseppe, I want to become an ascetic nun."

He glanced at her with half-lidded eyes. "You're only 14 years old."

"Well, when I'm older, I'm going to be an ascetic nun. And that's that." She retorted.

Elia made another funny, snorting noise.

He sighed. Nothing was going to help her go through this horrible experience, really. "Look, I'll tell you a secret about the gas mask, okay?"

"What's that?"

"…. It's supposed to be part of my new uniform. I was accepted into the ranks of the Ciclamino Squad."

Kiriyuu clamped a hand over her mouth. "Oh! Congratulations!!" She hugged him, then she let go of him. "….. But we don't have a Ciclamino Squad in the family...?"

Elia snickered.

Guiseppe ignored the other girl for momentarily, focusing on Kiriyuu. "…It's a squadron within the family which just started recently – well, not exactly 'started'; they just thought of a name for the moment and assigned a few people into it."

"Oh." Kiriyuu pondered more. "… But… why? Why all this change?"

"…I'm not entirely sure myself. But whatever it is, I'm sure it's a good thing."

……….

They passed the security no problem, even when Elia was asked to be searched which left her cursing at the security guards in Italian. Kiriyuu was left moping in the corner. They went through towards the '_Point of No Return_' – ie, the terminal, and approached the gate, where their plane was waiting outside, being loaded with their furniture and being checked thoroughly by mechanics etc etc.

Kiriyuu turned back round.

No Hibari.

What? She honestly expected him to have tailed their taxi all the way here, interrogate the air hostess' behind the check-in desks to find out what flight Kiriyuu was taking back to Italy, run past security and finally arrive here, just to meet her at the terminal and bribe her to come back to him with some tear-jerking, heart-numbing speech on how much he needed her to stay with him?

He wasn't there, as predicted, no matter how much hope and wistful thinking she had pent-up inside her. Her face fell. She turned back round, and followed Guiseppe and Elia meekly. They sat down on the waiting seats, and waited, watching.

Elia was staring at a cockroach that had crawled into Kiriyuu's open bag while she stared vacantly into space. She decided not to tell Kiriyuu that she would find a nasty surprise in her bag later on and sat back, rifling through the 'GO GIRL' magazine she had brought with her. Kiriyuu had 'ANIMALS AND YOU'.

Guiseppe broke her pointless musings. "I got good seats. Business class, with full-time access to 16:9 widescreen plasma TVs showing movies not even in the cinemas yet – and chairs that could turn into recliner deck chairs and/or beds. Good food, good mood, good trip back to Italy. What could be better, eh?" Guiseppe said, grinning like a smug cat. He then flipped open a newspaper he had brought over from Italy. Not just that – but it was actually an Italian Mafia newspaper – with all the latest gossip going on - which was quite strange because the mafia were rather reserved and introverted about what was going on about their families and stuff.

"Guiseppe!" She hissed, trying to hide the paper.

The old man laughed. "Don't worry, it's cunningly masqueraded as the Sunday Mail."

"But today's Wednesday."

"Kiriyuu, you should be seen, not heard. Look: Front Page News – a group of extremely dangerous mafia criminals escape from an Italian Prison Resort. Sources say they are… heading to Japan? Whew, thank god we're going on the plane back to Italy, eh, Kiriyuu?"

Silence. Kiriyuu bit her lip and stared off at the floor. _Something doesn't feel right. Do I really want to go back to Italy, and never see Hibari ever again? Or do I want stay in Namimori homeless? Maybe I can stay at Tsuna's… Nah, he already has 5 thousand something roommates already. I don't think he'd appreciate me crashing in. Maybe I can stay with Yamamoto? Nah, his dad scares me. Or maybe I'd ask Gokudera if I can stay with him – you know, I still have no idea where he lives, or what he lives in. Argh, why are decisions so hard to make?!_

Then she looked back up - "Guiseppe, I… I don't really know." She turned back to her godfather.

"Huh?" He said, closing the newspaper again. "What don't you know?"

"There's this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. It's… I don't feel right, and I don't… I don't know. I really don't."

"You don't '_what_'? What're you trying to say? What do you not know? Give me a hint!" He cried out in irritation. Sometimes, the girl was too hard to decipher and understand for her own good.

"I don't want to leave Namimori just yet!"

More silence. He blinked at her. She swallowed.

He then roared, "_**WHAT?**_ Why not? Why do you still care about that Hibari guy? Who cares if you like him!! He obviously doesn't like you! There are hundreds of good-looking, tonfa-wielding Italian suitors back at home! Hibari Kyouya is nothing! He doesn't care about you at all!" Guiseppe started yelling, his face growing red with fury. Her stupid, stubborn, pig-headed-ness of a personality was starting to thoroughly annoy him now.

"It's not that!" She yelled back at him angrily.

"THEN WHAT IS IT?!"

The two didn't seem to realise how much they were embarrassing themselves in public. Elia slid out of her seat and hid herself behind a nearby plant pot.

"I JUST DON'T WANT TO LEAVE JAPAN AND BECOME A NUN!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Guiseppe's jaw dropped. Kiriyuu gasped and smacked her palm flat against her open mouth. "I-I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have… raised my voice like that…"

"I see…" Guiseppe was looking down, a shadow cast over his eyes. "There's no convincing you after what you've been through with Hibari Kyouya."

There was a pause.

"… And why would you become a nun anyway?" He added.

"I-I don't know, but yes, I don't want to go back. And Hibari and I did a lot of things together -- and even if he hates me, then I don't care. I still like Hibari. He's special! He… He's… very special … I really like him. And there are plenty of more reasons to live in Namimori than just because of him. I went to a good school, I had good friends and I don't want to lose them!"

"But you're a hitman!" Guiseppe yelled at her (in Japanese, which led to every head craning to their direction). "That sort of life isn't for you! It never was!"

She shook her head at him. "You're wrong, Guiseppe. You're wrong."

Guiseppe frowned fiercely. "How-How could you…?"

Kiriyuu stomped her feet, her fists clenched. "I HAVE A BETTER LIFE IN NAMIMORI THAN I HAVE IN ITALY AND I DON'T WANT TO GIVE THAT UP!!" And Kiriyuu sat up, turned back round, and ran back towards the security point and out of the terminal –

– "But your luggage is in the aeroplane already, idiot."

Kiriyuu stopped, and turned back round slowly at the sound of the new voice, as Guiseppe stared at Elia in amazement; the girl had stood up from her spot behind the plant pot, facing the two. "Elia, y-you're speaking Japanese…_**perfectly**_…" Guiseppe stuttered out.

The emo-girl put her arm-warmer clad hand on her hips. "Yeah, and you thought I didn't know what you had been saying about me all along, _Kiriyuu-onee-san_."

Kiriyuu's eye twitched furiously. "Um. Ehehehe…?"

…………

Two hours later, and Hibari was still not finished cleaning up his house yet. It was getting dark, and he hadn't had dinner yet, either. He didn't seem too hungry anyway, and continued shovelling bits of splintered wood from the walls into a binbag. He left the front porch door open, so many bugs had been flying into his exposed house, attracted by the light, but he couldn't care less. This also meant he would have to explain why Kiriyuu wouldn't be in school anymore; he'd have her file shredded up, her locker emptied and her name criss-crossed from that stupid Gardening Club that used up more precious money of the school's than the Chess Club. Hmph, how unnecessary.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the front gate. Hibari stopped tidying up and went out to the garden, hearing the familiar cicadas chirp and this time, a frog. Surprisingly enough, a part of him was wondering if it was Kiriyuu coming back because her feeble brain had forgotten something back at his house. He opened the door.

It wasn't Kiriyuu, but an old guy.

It was in fact, Kenji the Caretaker, who he hadn't seen for quite a while. What nice timing. More sarcasm from Hibari. He was quite a sarcastic person, mind you. The caretaker began, "Ahh, Hibari-san! So sorry I haven't dropped by for such a long time, I expected Kiriyuu-san to be taking good care of you!" He exclaimed, looking exceptionally cheerful for a dreary night.

_**SLAM!**_

Hibari slammed the door in his face and stomped back inside the house. A few minutes later, there was another knock on the door. Hibari went up again anyway, despite wondering who it could be now, and opened the door. It was the bug exterminator who got rid of an infestation of ants in Kiriyuu's bedroom a few months ago.

"Hibari-kun, good evening. How is your cousin?"

"She's left, and how dare you address me that way."

_**SLAM!**_

Before Hibari could march back to the lounge; there was another knock on the door. Hibari debated whether he should open it this time or not. But he did anyway, and then –

"_Hibari__!!_"

The person leapt on him, smelling like damp earth and rainwater; arms circling tightly around his waist. He blinked for a few seconds, as the person did not let go, and was instead, snuggling their head further into his chest.

"… Kiriyuu…?"

Even though this was the first time he had said her name, she didn't seem to realize.

"Yes… It's me…" She sniffled heavily, looking up at him; her form was completely wet and drenched, her hair matted and flayed. She looked awful, and she didn't let go of him. She really was small compared to him, only coming up to his shoulders at least. The poor girl looked morbid, her hair was dishevelled and her eyes were rather puffy, red, and she also a red, dribbling nose. "It's me." She squeaked at him. "Kiriyuu-chan has returned to Hibari!"

A sigh followed. "………………………You came back." He muttered out.

She nodded vigorously, rubbing her damp eyes and smiling. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I don't hate you and I don't want to kill you! I don't want to leave! Don't kick me out of your house which I've grown to love… Please don't kick me out… Please don't…" She snivelled drearily again.

He wasn't convinced.

"You don't believe me?!" She squawked furiously at him. "FINE! I will shower you with my Ultra-Taiga Mighty Morphin' Kiriyuu-Love Powah! Prepare to be covered in – "

"Stop doing that." He grunted out as he looked away. "It's embarrassing."

"Hmph! Hibari, you're such a stick in the mud!"

Hibari shut the door first, still with Kiriyuu attached to him tightly at the waist, and they hobbled back through the lawn. She had her eyes closed tight and her cheek mushed against him, and they both entered the house. "How did you get back?" If he remembered correctly, she'd thrown all her cash on his floor and there was no way she could've run all the way back here from the airport. That was suicidal.

"Guiseppe gave me a lot of money and I got a taxi. He said if I ever needed to return back to Italy then I should use the money to buy a plane ticket. But I'm not going to go back. I don't want to. Everything you said to me…" She began, snivelling heavily again. "I'm sure you didn't mean what you said… right?"

Um… Hibari almost forgot what he said to her those few hours ago. Something about twiglets, right? She glared at him; maybe not…

She now looked hopeful, and rather sad, up at him. "Tell me you didn't mean it, please…?"

"….." He sat back down on the floor, still with Kiriyuu with her arms entangled around him, almost lying over him.

"Go on…!" She wailed desperately.

"…. I – "

"Why are you hesitating?" She barked at him angrily, and a bit unhappily, too. "I was about to become an ascetic nun in Italy all because of you!"

He glared at her. She had a death sentence. If she reincarnated, he'd probably track her new, reincarnated form down and kill her again. "Why did you come back?"

"Say it first!" She demanded furiously. Wow, she had grown assertive over the past hours. And gutsy, too, yelling at him like that. Who did she think she was now?

He looked to the side; his face going slightly red. "… I didn't mean it." He grumbled out eventually.

Amazingly enough, he'd expected her to start screaming like as if she watching some lame-o, unpopular boy-band's concert in the Theatre, but she didn't. She squealed in happiness instead, hugging him even tighter than before he felt his lungs would pop. She didn't let go. She didn't want to let go. Kiriyuu closed her eyes and sighed heavily, snuggling against him further. "I knew it… Hibari doesn't want me to go as much as I don't want to leave Hibari."

"Things were quieter." He said. A short sigh. Kiriyuu sighed too.

Wait. Was that a good thing, or a bad thing? She rubbed her cheek against him again, trying to get comfortable anyway. "Hibari's so warm… I feel so sleepy now…" She looked up at him, her chin resting on his chest.

His fist clenched. He tensed all over. A vein in his head almost popped. "………. Answer my question now." However, he seemed to be slightly stumbling with his words.

"Oh… why did I come back? I… I love Namimori. I love it a lot. Even though the random strangers tend to glare at me when I walk down the streets for no reason… ahem. Anyway, I wasn't sure if you did mean what you said back there, and I got really angry and yelled at you and said a lot of nasty stuff that I didn't even mean but I just knew I really wanted to come back. I'm sorry, Hibari. Please accept my profound apology…"

"And your Carer let you?"

There was no response. Kiriyuu was now just lying over him with her eyes closed. He rolled up his sleeve and swiftly smacked her over the head. She instantly jolted back upright again. "Uwagh - ?!"

"Don't fall asleep on me." He snarled at her, another vein slightly popping.

"Urhh… sorry…My head kinda hurts…. I don't feel so good…"

"That's because I hit you, and I won't hesitate to do it again."

"Mmm, but this time it felt different when you hit me…!" She squeaked, then she nodded in response to his question, resting her head over him, her chin now on his chest as she looked up. "To tell you the truth, Guiseppe and I aren't as close as we used to be. He did take care of me at some point… up until when I was roughly 12 years old. Afterwards, I didn't see him much. But Guiseppe isn't that evil to see me married off to a guy who I don't like. U-Uh… Never mind. Actually, I think you would mind. Guiseppe said my mother had arranged me to marry some guy called Williem back in Genoa. But Guiseppe didn't like him, and I didn't like him either, so he couldn't bear to see my happiness being ripped to shreds. That was a reason why I wanted to become a nun! But I don't want to become a nun! And Guiseppe knows I really like you so he couldn't bear to see me being really unhappy being separated from you, too!"

There was a slight pause.

She gave him a sour look. "That's what you want, isn't it? You like seeing people's lives being ruined! Sick, sadistic Hibari!"

He rolled his eyes.

Then she giggled, looking a bit sleazy with a perverted grin. "But that's what I like about you, ehehe….!"

"… I see." He replied out instead.

"No, you don't! You don't understand!" She yelled at him again. "I like you, Hibari! And nothing you do or say will ever get me off your chest!"

"I was going to make dinner."

"Dinner, yay! Hibari's a good cook! I like Hibari's food!" She cheered, letting go of him briefly to wave her arms around in the air – then she realised what she had just done – and thoroughly wrapped her arms around him securely again. "I'm not letting go this time."

"Let go."

"No."

"Let go."

"No!"

"I'll hit you."

"Go on then. I welcome you to!"

He didn't hit her. He liked it better when his victims didn't want to receive any pain. So they dwindled into the kitchen like that, with Kiriyuu's arms still tangled around him, whilst she stood behind him.

"Hey. Hibari?"

"What?" He pulled open the fridge door. Some vegetables, raw chicken strips and leftover cheese with a suspicious green, fluffy spot on it. Usually, Hibari only ate cheese when it was infused with hamburger-goodness. Kiriyuu must've stocked up on cheese without him knowing.

"You like birds, right?"

He glanced back at her. "I have an affinity for them." He slammed the door shut and then pulled open the freezer, before lifting out a frozen pack of crab meat and a bloody salmon's head.

"Ooh, okay, what kind of bird do you think you are?"

"I don't know."

"What kind of bird do you think I am?" She then asked, as Hibari went to chop up the vegetables.

"…. A cuckoo." He mumbled out.

"A cuckoo? _Really?_" Was that an insult?

"Yes, they're brainless birds, and have personality traits resembling the common parasite. They live in other bird's nests, and when they're ready, they leave that nest and don't even thank the one who took them under their wing." He said, chopping fiercely at the vegetables on the board.

Yes, that probably was an insult.

"…" it took a few moments for that to sink into Kiriyuu's mind. She imagined herself as a cuckoo, and then shuddered – that was a scary thought she didn't want to develop on. "Oh, that is like me. Well, I did live here, took up and left and didn't say 'thanks', huh? Hehehe. Well, I'm back now, and more grateful than ever. I actually thought we'd be like _The Condor Heroes_."

Suddenly, a five-second long image of Kiriyuu with long black hair wearing no other colour but white perched on the lap of a Hibari dressed in white with two white streaks in his hair and missing an arm flashed through her mind, making her jump too. "Waaaah!" She made a weird squeak in addition.

"Let go now. I need to go to the fridge again."

"I'll get it for you. What is it you need?" She asked, still snuggling into him from the side. She could just hold onto him all daaaaaay.

"You don't know the password."

"Yes I do, it's 0010076024582000348200." She replied, grinning triumphantly at him.

"… Impressive."

Her grin widened.

" - But I changed the password, unfortunately for you."

She frowned immediately, then let go of him and he brushed past her while she glared at him. "Go back outside and do some tidying up. You'll just get in my way in the kitchen."

"Okay, okay." She bounded out of the kitchen, and into the living room, before wincing slightly in the side. She limped over. Hibari noticed, but didn't say anything. He watched her waddle off to the garden. Her suitcase was actually still outside the gate, so she dragged that inside, first, before entering the house again.

She glanced back at Hibari, who had left the kitchen and was watching her strangely.

"What's wrong?" She asked him.

"You look funny."

It was then she realised he was staring at her -ahem- chest. She looked down at herself, and then laughed sheepishly. "Oh, I get what you mean." She scooped out the folded up memo she had stolen from Guiseppe's suitcase earlier on the day from her two-section secret bra.

Hibari's eye twitched violently. She propped the memo into her pocket and grinned at him. He was still staring at her.

"What?"

He shook his head and returned back to the kitchen. She put down her suitcase on the floor, smiled at his retreating back. It felt good to be home. She took one step, and stopped. Her head was starting whirl, and she struggled to take another step. And then, her vision blurred; Hibari's back split into two, then three, four, ten… Kiriyuu wavered, and then, her knees gave way - she toppled onto the floor, unconscious.

………..

Kiriyuu was put in bed with no dinner; she woke up after a few minutes when she collapsed – with a high fever because she spent too much time out in the heavy rain. But now, Kiriyuu was really risking everything. She defied her carer, who had let her go because he wasn't that heartless, and now her temperature had rocketed off the charts. Oh well, she was mad. Just plain mad, demented, insane, crazy now. She needed a slap to tell her that everything she had done wasn't worth it if she died.

"You need to go to hospital, now."

"No, it's okay." She said, smiling again rather weakly. "I'll be fine. I want dinner. I want to taste Hibari's food again…"

"You're boiling up. That'll teach you to stay in heavy rain for twenty minutes with no hood or umbrella."

"… I've had worse. This is nothing; last time I had chicken pox and there were all these little, doodly things on my - "

"I'm serious." He growled at her, hitting her over the head - hard.

"Oww…" She said, her eyes watering. That really did hurt. "… Fine, whatever. Eto… But I have to tell you something- I'm deadly allergic to hospitals."

That earned her another smack over the head. She just grinned at him in response and nestled further into the bed, staring at the ceiling blankly while Hibari went to get his jacket.

_What would my life be like if I hadn't met Hibari? _She thought. And then - _I don't even want to think about it anymore!_

Yup, it felt great to be back.

* * *

Just wondering – would anyone like a profile of Kiriyuu? You can tell me what you want to know about her. I could put it up in the next chapter.


	22. Kusakabe Tetsuya vs Higirl

**Chapter 22 (Plus profile)**

_Kusakabe-san vs Hicousin_

_(aka Cabin Fever)_

Kiriyuu actually liked being hospitalised; she said she got more attention than usual, and definitely more presents. Actually, this would be the first time she received presents whilst she was in Namimori, since her birthday was still far away, and Christmas was still far away, too. Hibari had stayed with her all night, too, just to keep her company. Actually, it was so he didn't have to go back to a trashed up and empty, lonely house by himself. No, it wasn't really that reason either anyway. He just stayed. Whatever went through was mind of Hibari Kyouya the ED was a mystery. Besides, Kiriyuu said she would allow Hibari to sleep on the stool that stood beside her bed…. And even in the bed itself with her, ehehe….

"Isn't it great? I have my own bed that can go up and down just by using this cool remote control -- watch!" She was demonstrating to Tsuna and those who visited (she couldn't believe that she had so many friends in Namimori that quickly). She was even pretty close with the baby now.

Kiriyuu held a remote control, and pressed a button – the top half of the bed began to rise up with a mechanical whirr. Everyone went 'ooh' and 'aah'; 'everyone' included Tsuna, Yamamoto, Gokudera (surprisingly enough), Reborn, Bianchi, Haru, Kyoko, Ryohei and Lambo and I-Pin – and even Dr Shamal - unfortunately, the ward only allowed three visitors at a time and Dr Shamal spent his whole time there flirting with Bianchi, the Nurses, and almost any single female patient he had to stumble across.

Kiriyuu was left to the side and forgotten.

Hibari already counted as one permanent visitor, so they poured in two and two at a time. Hibari found this highly un-amusing; especially when they would always ask her if she and Hibari were 'close' now. Kiriyuu would just smile politely and declare her new-found love for Hibari all over again. Even for a boy, that was pretty embarrassing to hear.

She didn't tell them why she was hospitalised, just the fact that she had an 'accident', and all eyes swerved onto Hibari who just glared back. What? This time it wasn't his fault, honest.

The presents she received were just baskets of fruits from Tsuna, Gokudera and Reborn, a bento box of sushi from Yamamoto, Kyoko had another manga book for her (this time, she could keep it herself), a handmade Buddha statue made from papier-mâché from Haru, Lambo, I-Pin. She also received poison cooking from Bianchi (she didn't know it was poison until Hibari hit it out of her hands and it sizzled a hole on the floor that you could see the floor down below them), a weird device from Dr Shamal which Hibari chucked out the window before Kiriyuu could find out what it actually was, and a Boxing Club flyer from Ryohei who said if she could 'fight', should join the Club. Oh, and he gave her a mouthpiece, either, incase she suddenly decided that she would want to go boxing with Hibari. Unfortunately, she was still missing boxing gloves.

As Kiriyuu marvelled the rest of her gifts, Hibari crumpled up the flyer and threw it out of the window along with Dr Shamal's gift once he heard what had happened between her and Ryohei even though nothing really did happen between the two. The mouthpiece was also chucked into a glass of water. Uh….yeah.

"Hibari. You destroyed my gifts."

"Those ones were pointless anyway."

"Still a gift."

"Be quiet."

"Okie."

……………….

"Guiseppe! You came to visit me? I thought you went back to Italy?!"

The middle-aged man sighed, brushed off his hat and rubbed at his temples. "Okay, because I am your godfather, I will do one more thing aside from letting Hibari live as you wish and letting you go back to Namimori for the time being – I am doing all this for Kiriyuu-dono – and not for Hibari, my future godson-in-law – "

Hibari harrumphed in disagreement.

"And because I do not want Kiriyuu-dono to become an ascetic nun at the measly age of 14 – I, with the responsibility as your godfather, will report back to our family, and tell them that I have not discovered your prompt location for the time-being because you are still in Disneyland. That way, you and Hibari are secure for now. Stay in Namimori until I tell you it is safe, so stay put for now and don't do anything conspicuous and I will re-locate you two when everything is sorted out, and give you a house and give you new identities – you do know that this is also the _Giglio Nero Witness Protection Act_, you know? Ahhh, you know how much I am I abusing it just for you and my future godson-in-law? Sigh…"

"Yay! You're helping me and Hibari elope! Isn't that romantic, Hibari?" Kiriyuu squealed out, bouncing up and down in the bed again, this time with a wet flannel firmly taped down over her forehead.

Hibari had been sitting beside her the whole time, and smacked her on the head. "No. We are not eloping."

"Future godson-in-law, I advise you to treat my little goddaughter better; I still don't get what she sees in you, future godson-in-law – "

"Stop calling me that."

Guiseppe sighed again. This future godson-in-law of his would be troublesome…

………………..

She was left with Hibari again once Guiseppe's visiting hours were over, and was more obedient and less cheeky than usual. Thankfully, her condition wasn't bad anymore; the temperature had gone down, nothing serious. After a few weeks, she would be fit as a fiddle.

Hibari had actually brought her lunch today. He told her it was leftovers from five weeks ago, but Kiriyuu didn't mind. She was glad that Hibari had brought something for her.

"Hibari! Feed me!" She sang, bouncing up and down in her bed again and rolling around and around under the covers, giggling. For a patient, she was awfully hyper.

"No. Your arms are still working perfectly fine." As if he would be caught feeding Kiriyuu the food with chopsticks….

"Then you can break them for me so you can feed me!"

"You're an idiot." Though the offer did sound tempting…. (But she was kidding anyway)

"Hey. Hibari?" She asked, still bouncing up and down on the bed, much more vigorously this time because it was extra springy compared to her bed at home and she had felt deprived of such luxurious, five-minute entertainment – Hibari frowned; he had yelled at her many times and hit her over the head to NOT do that because it the squeaky bed hinges thoroughly annoyed the hell out of him.

"What?"

"Do you want to go somewhere after I leave the hospital?" Kiriyuu asked, smiling as she flopped back on the bed, stretching. Oh, her hyperrrr had run out for the remainder of the day; that was good.

"Like where?"

"Eto, I dunno. Somewhere."

"Fine, whatever."

"Hey. Hibari?"

"What?"

"What are you going to do for the next 24 hours of being stuck here with me?"

"I don't know."

"Eto… I know what I'm going to do!"

"What's that." That wasn't even a question; he sort of knew the answer already. He didn't sound too enthusiastic.

"Talk." She replied cheerfully with an extra HUGE grin on her face. " - To you. Heehee."

"You already are."

"Yeah, I know. I can tell you all my secrets! I've never told anyone else my secrets before – not even Guiseppe or Elia. Except from my padre (father), but he's pushing up daisies."

Hibari felt his eye twitch feverishly. "… I don't want to know."

"Come on! You must want to know something about me!" She wailed, clinging onto his arm and swinging it around.

He pulled his arm away from her, back to his side. "No, I don't."

Kiriyuu frowned inwardly. Hibari was so mean!!

…………..

A few weeks later, and Kiriyuu was hobbling out of hospital; Hibari did leave on some occasions, to tidy up the house properly. Once he was done, it was roughly around the time Kiriyuu was discharged. She was eager to get on with their 'date', even though Hibari refused promptly. He refused to go on a 'date'. He hated dates. He had never been on a date. He just hated them in general. Dates were for losers. Besides, he wasn't properly dressed for a date – just in his school uniform as usual.

While Kiriyuu was wearing a tank top and her denim skirt, footless tights and strap shoes, she took Hibari's jacket, turned it inside out, and then put it back on him.

"Look, Namimori school jackets can act as two jackets in one. One for school, the other for a date with a hot chick like me, muhohoho."

Hibari just looked back at her, bored. Sometimes, Kiriyuu's ego could inflate to the size of a hot-air balloon without her even realising. "You're an idiot." He grunted.

"I love you too!" She screamed back at him.

It wasn't much of a date; they just went to the Bird store on the way home, and the pair of Lovebirds she desperately wanted were still there, much to her delight. She looked at the money she had brought with her, then gulped, and decided to hand it over in exchange for the Lovebirds – instead, Hibari paid for them, and then shoved the cage into her hands. The two birds were twittering around, terrified. Of course, everything Hibari did always had a violent streak in it even when he didn't intend it.

"There. They're your problem now. You look after them, feed them, wash them, whatever. If they die within two weeks time, then you owe me full cash back. And I also get to beat you up."

"Great! We can still go to Disneyland then!" She cheered instead as she pocketed her un-used, hard-earned cash, and Hibari hit her over the head.

"We're going home. And I'm confiscating your money for taking it from my safe without telling me. I won't even ask how you got the combination."

"Eto… but it's my money… Guiseppe gave me them…" She whimpered, he glared, and she stopped talking about it.

"Yes, and judging by your poor, illiterate financial intelligence, you'd just end up spending it on manga books and other girl stuff."

"Huh?" She blanched slightly at him. "Well, if you say so. Where are you going to put it?"

"Into my account."

Her eyes lit up, and then she placed a hand over her mouth, going all teary-eyed. "We're… We're sharing a bank account! A dream come true!"

"Yes, we are." He said in a matter-of-factly, and this earned another delightful squeal from Kiriyuu. "But I'm not going to give you the PIN number."

"Awww, well, I guess that makes kinda sense. I'm a pretty big spender… Can I walk around for a bit more?" She asked. "Hibari, come with me, please? I don't like walking around alone."

Before he could protest; she was already dragging him down the street. So they walked – together. She still had the bird cage in her hand – which she fondly called the two birds that were huddling against each other inside as 'Kyouya' and 'Kiriyuu'. Suddenly, she stopped, and gaped up at Hibari.

"Your first name's Kyouya." She looked spooked.

"… Yes, so?"

She gasped in response. "I forgot. Eto… I always call you Hibari… that's your surname, right? Oh my... that's quite rude, now that I think about it. I mean, we've known each other for quite some time and I don't want someone calling me 'Ottuso' all the name. S-Sorry… can I call you _Kyouya_ from now on?"

"Whatever."

"Kyouya!" She then cheered as she bounced up and down around him. "Kyouya, Kyouya, Kyouya, Kyouya, Kyo – " She stopped, and took a deep breath. "… Your name is hard to say. It's like a tongue twister or something."

Whatever, thought Hibari.

Then, she looked as if she had seen a ghost again. "Eto… my name is Kiriyuu, and your name is Kyouya, so we're… "

He dreaded this very moment.

"The Two K's!!" She promptly finished cheerfully. _The Two K's…_

-cough(Shouldn't be allowed)cough-

His eyebrow twitched. "You're an idiot." Damn, he said the same thing twice in a day and in less than a few hours. He brushed past her anyway, and she frowned, before latching onto him by the arm in progress, smushing her cheek against him; he tried to shake her off, she didn't let him.

Were they really in the status of boyfriend and girlfriend now? Maybe not.

Well, the other worst thing that could happen to him was that he could do was ditch her while she was pregnant with his unborn, unwanted and illegitimate child - but that was still left to be desired, and they were still about 14-15 years old anyway. Kiriyuu immediately stopped thinking way too ahead than her brain could manage and shook her head, then resumed in latching onto Hibari's arm and rubbing her cheek against it. Mmm… toasty warm arm… that's strange. Hibari was a regularly skinny guy but she could feel the linear, smooth and sinewy outline trace of muscle.

Only one thing rang through her mind - _Kiriyuu liiiiike. Kiriyuu like arm… Kyouya's arm…Yes, Kiriyuu really, really like Kyouya's arm… mmm…._The other thing Kiriyuu pondered about was that the fact that summer vacation had started – did that mean she and Hibari could finally go to Disneyland?! Before she could say it, as if reading her thoughts, Hibari stopped in their tracks and she stopped, too.

"If you're thinking of going to Disneyland this summer, you are deadly mistaken." He said shooting a bitter glare towards her direction.

Kiriyuu frowned. "Then are we going to go somewhere _at all _for the summer?"

Suddenly, Hibari smirked at her.

……………..

"I DIDN'T MEAN THIS KIND OF HOLIDAY!!" Kiriyuu yelled out loud, her voice being drained away by the loud rumble of thunder as rain pelted down on her helmet.

She was the last person in the line of marching 15 year old boys with hiking sticks, about a distance ten metres away from them. That was because she was the one holding their entire luggage, with bags strapped to her front, her back, and even over her head. Not to mention, she too had to wear the camouflage outfits and the hat, the matching heavy boots -- AND it was raining. The path up the mountain to Hibari's Log Cabin was squelchy, slippery, muddy, and smelt bad, too. His Cabin was still looking like a tiny speck up, up and away from Kiriyuu's eyes.

What's worse was that Kusakabe-san was going, too. Kusakabe Tetsuya aka Kusakabe-san by his peers…

He was Kiriyuu's deadliest rival…

…. For Kyouya's love!!

Well, that's what she thought anyway.

"Kiriyuu-san, I'll help you carry a bag." He said, as he realised that she was struggling so much.

She stopped, and then glared at full-frontal at him. "Eto, I know what you're up to! I'm onto you, Kusakabe Tetsuya! My greatest, eternal rival! But no thank you, I'm perfectly fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes, really! So shoo and get lost! Shoo shoo shoo!"

Geez, and this was what being nice to his senpai's girlfriend got him. They were dating, right? He actually hoped not. She was too shrill for Hibari. If he was invited to their wedding, god knows what kind of reception party he'd be expecting from her planning ideas.

Hibari's Training Camp was really a horrible program – apparently he did this every summer – hand out application forms to his Disciplinary Committee and take those who applied for it with a 500 yen deposit all the way up to the wary wilderness about five hundred thousand miles from Namimori where the weather was bad every day so he could torture them. Well, it was called 'training', but that was just the codename Hibari decided to go with. It was torture, really.

And Kiriyuu had come along.

At first, she didn't know about his Training Camp of Torture and Doom. He cleverly disguised it by claiming that it would be a temporarily luxurious and relaxing getaway from Namimori, then again, Kiriyuu's short-attention span and pea-sized brain meant even though Hibari could've told her what the getaway really was, she would've forgotten what he had said to her about it two minutes later. Luxurious and relaxing her ass, she thought. There was nothing luxurious and relaxing about hiking all the way up to 100 point altitude in the mountain tops. But still, Hibari organised it, and Kiriyuu did not want to be alone in Hibari's house for the next two weeks.

Though she really did want to go back home, as of NOW. She tripped over a root that was sticking out from a nearby tree, and fell flat-face into the mud. Then she lifted her head up, and wailed.

"Hibari-senpai, Ottuso-san is lagging behind. Should we wait?"

This earned the suggestive, caring Committee Freshman Recruit a big smack to the head with a steel tonfa. "No, anyone who can't keep up should be forgotten and left to decompose." The Head prefect responded back coldly.

Hibari really was scary.

Kiriyuu didn't hear that inconsiderate comment, instead, focusing her entire attention on the other Committee members. Why did all of his Disciplinary Committee members fashioned their hair like _Elvis Presley_? What were those hairstyles called again? Ducktails or something?

They eventually reached Cabin, after a two hour hike from the train station; and Kiriyuu finally realised how shabby and sinister this whole conspiracy turned out to be. Hibari had tricked her! Well, not really – he didn't tell her to come – she was the one who was highly persistent in coming. And now she regretted it.

Oh well, not his problem.

_Hibari tricked me!! _She thought bitterly.

Hibari's Cabin was quite large; completely made out of wood. It was enough to home ten people, including Hibari and Kiriyuu. The boards outside that were covering the windows were flapping around in the strong wind, making an eerie, whistling noise, and the roof was leaking slightly. The air smelt musty and damp. They hadn't been since the past year and there were cobwebs everywhere. The beds were looking a bit dusty, too. It just looked like something from a Fire Cabin Crew's room. Or _Cabin Fever_. Eek!

Suddenly, Kiriyuu paled as the door was shut behind her, and all the boys took their luggage off her, unpacking huge amounts of hair-care products – hairspray, hairgel, hairpaste, hairglue, hairtape -- Eh?? _Hairtape?_

"… I-I'm not sleeping here… with all you guys, right?" Kiriyuu squeaked out once she felt the heavy bags lift off her.

This earned lecherous grins from almost everyone except from Hibari – who grabbed her arm and dragged her further into the Cabin. He kicked open a rusty door, revealing another room with a desk and a double bed.

She sighed in relief. "Eto… I'm sleeping there?"

"You're sharing with me." Hibari said, earning wolf whistles from his Committee, some were swinging their dusty pillows around and around in the air above their heads, others were making silly faces at them – he glared back at them, and they quietened down, beginning to unpack their luggage.

"I-I'm... sharing with… Kyouya? Oh mi gosh! First, the house… the bathroom… the living room, the kitchen, the bank account!! And now this! I… This is another dream come true?!" She said, with the same enthusiasm as Ryohei had towards anything. She was sobbing as if she had just won some Academy award, and Hibari hit her over the head again.

"If you snore, I'll pry out your uvula with this." He said, holding a pair of iron-grip pliers from his jacket pocket - He looked deadly serious as usual.

Kiriyuu just whimpered at the sight of them. "W-What's the point of me being here anyway?" She moaned at him.

"You have many roles. You're the one who's handling laundry, catering, and oil-lamp services. A slave."

She twitched. _S-Slave? _She immediately began to protest. "… But I can't cook to save myself, and remember all those shirts I pinked up? And what's 'Oil-lamp services'?"

Suddenly, in a dank corner, a boy raised his hand up meekly. "Hibari-senpai, my oil lamp just ran out." He squawked, pointing to the dimming lamp beside his bed on the table.

"You know what to do." Hibari said, gesturing to Kiriyuu before shoving a matchbox and bottle of lamp fuel into her hands.

Kiriyuu stared dumbly at the matchsticks and the bottle of HIGHLY FLAMMABLE fuel in her hands and gulped. "O-Okay…"

**A few seconds later….**

The Cabin was quiet. A few squirrels hopped over, sniffed the fresh pine wood, and quickly darted away. Birds sang in the trees, deers pranced around, then -

_**KA-BOOM!!**_

A quarter of the cabin exploded into a 25-metre high mushroom cloud, bits of wood and broken furniture flying around everywhere.

And Kiriyuu, with her face covered in black soot, ran out screaming, towards the direction of the woods with her arms in the air, closely chased by Hibari, who was followed by angry-mob-looking Disciplinary Committee members.

* * *

Yes, she blew up the cabin. Okay, here's the profile of Kiriyuu as promised!

* * *

**Profile**

**Name:** Ottuso Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole (formal spelling of her name is actually Kiryuu. Salvatrice Lacole are her middle names)

**Age:** 14, born March 22 (her starsign is Aries)

**Blood Type:** O (see more in Japanese blood types when determining personality)

**Birthplace:** Genoa, Italy

**Height:** 157cm (roughly 5'2)

**Status:** Sniper Rank of Giglio Nero, now a hapless, puny-student in Namimori

**Appearance: **Changes every 4 years, but she now has carroty-orange hair that reaches past her shoulders, and cat-green eyes

**Language:** Italian, Japanese, English

**Associated animal:** Treefrog, Cuckoo

**Nationality:** 2/4 Italian, 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 Other (she is a quarter Alien – no, not really - she has a big family tree and therefore has a lot of ancestors)

**Relatives and Acquaintances:**

- Father (Japanese, deceased)

- Mother (Italian, works on a Cannabis Farm unbeknownst to Kiriyuu)

- Guiseppe (Uncle, Godfather and Carer)

- Elia, (apprentice, younger cousin)

**Faculty of Current Education:** Namimori Junior High School, Year 2

**Education:** A Hitman HND (HND equals Higher National Diploma), notably has a distinct IQ of 101

**Affiliation:** The Giglio Nero Famiglia (full-time), Namimori Junior High's Green Eco-Lovers of Gardening Club aka the Tree Hugger's Association (part-time on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon)

**Weapon(s): **WES-44 magnum revolver, Micro .44mm, Snake Sniper model 2000, Moss-54 Shotgun

**Personality:** Rather naïve and immature, an overall friendly, caring, generous person, not too selfish; a bit greedy, but very precarious and alert. Open and kind, honest. Has a strong sense of justice, responsibility and dependability. Likes to take care of people and protect them.

**Negatives: **Low EQ,clumsy,very simple,easily intimidated and misled, manipulated and depressed. Rather emotionally unstable and becomes easily distressed. Crap at planning and organising tactics, too brash and head-forward into things. Has a short attention and a lousy sense of direction, tends to get lost easily.

**Abilities: **Out of 10, she'd be a 5.5, probably. Expert at sniping, reasonable in hand-to-hand combat. Doesn't like fighting very much; only fights as a last resort

**History: **She was born into the Giglio Nero, an only child. Her father passed away when she was roughly 7 years old. Her mother couldn't take care of her by herself and sent her to a Hitman boarding school where she spent a few years there. She was the retrieved back by her Uncle who looked after her for another 2 years and attended another Hitman academy where she met Longchamp. She graduated with an HND and began participating actively in the Giglio Nero for the next 2 years there until receiving the assignment to assassinate Hibari.

**Habits: **Says 'Eto' a lot, in replacement for 'Anou'. Also bites her fingernails excessively. Starts conversations with Hibari with '_Hey, Hibari?_'

**Afraid of: **Hospitals, ghosts, the colour brown, Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto's father (she now knows that she will never ever get married to Yamamoto)

**Allergic to:** Animals with fur, certain types of cosmetics, and prawns

**Likes:** Anything to do with Hibari and Hibari himself, obsessed with Disneyland, shiny things, manga/bishounens, people with sadistic natures and bad-boy attitudes (like Hibari)

**Dislikes: **Scary stuff like Japanese Horror movies, blood, gender discrimination and inequality, school and homework, people who hurt the ones she likes

**Hobbies:** Gardening, cooking, fishing, laundry, gymnastics, playing video games with Hibari

**Favourite foods:** Sushi, chocolate, Italian food

**Least favourite foods:** Bananas. Anything with mushrooms and prawns

**Favourite drinks:** Milk, lemonade

**Least favourite drinks:** Coffee and blackcurrant juice

**Favourite movie:** Star Wars

**Favourite TV Show:** Xena the Warrior Princess

**Favourite magazine(s):** Animals and You, Bliss Teen (particularly the Agony Aunt section)

**Other stuff worth knowing:**

_- Extremely _loyal to Hibari will do absolutely ANYTHING for Hibari and those she loves (so far, it's just Hibari)

- Doesn't get travel sick

- Her Japanese sucks. Hibari often has a hard time trying to figure out what she really wants to say from time to time

- She's a crap liar

- She's a vegetarian (can still eat fish and eggs)

- Idolises Reborn, Bianchi, Yamamoto and Ryohei

- Wants to be a snake when older, however, she is most likely to be a nun or a hermit in the future. Or a Baker.

- Believes in the paranormal extensively. Wants to see an UFO at least once in her life

- Claustrophobic, can't stand tiny toilet cubicles

- Hates the colour brown

- Is surprisingly a clean person even though her room is quite messy

* * *

Well, there you have it. A profile on Kiriyuu. Hope you enjoyed it :)


	23. An Emotional Rollercoaster

**Chapter 23**

_An Emotional Rollercoaster_

Thanks to Kiriyuu blowing up half the cabin unintentionally, they took five days to repair the broken cabin by cutting down trees and re-patching it. That meant that despite the training programme was supposed to be only roughly 2 and a half weeks long, it was prolonged to 3 weeks. It was a miracle that no-one had died in the explosion. They ended up turning the part she blew up by accident into a luxurious front porch with a tattered, old shower curtain taped over the big blown-out hole in the wall due to their lack of expertise in building a frickin' cabin since none of them were architects for all that mattered.

Of course, Kiriyuu's blanket and pillow was thrown out there; that would be her new bed for the remainder of the training programme. She would not get to share Hibari's warm bed anymore and had to sleep outside, huddling with the blanket that didn't even cover her properly as the horrid mountaintop weather bit at her exposed heels during the lonely nights. No matter how much she sobbed and begged Hibari; he wasn't going to let her off that easily.

And thus… Kiriyuu wanted love. _Was it, like, so much to ask?_

She sighed.

How sad and pathetic it may have sounded, she didn't care. She wanted to feel loved at least sometime in her life. Yeah, that'll be good. She wanted Hibari to at least show that he did appreciate her living with him in Namimori. But she didn't want Hibari to start serenading to her on one bended knee either. Or worse… maybe he didn't like her that way. Hibari would never forgive her for blowing up his cabin.

_But we went through so much together!! I'm sure he has the heart to forgive me for my careless actions! _

But ever since Guiseppe came and left, and that whole argument back at the house which ended up with Kiriyuu practically pointing a gun at Hibari's noggin etc etc, Kiriyuu felt awkward around Hibari even though she tried not to let it get to her.

What? She actually thought that things would be back to normal no matter how much she tried to ignore it? Even though Guiseppe had left back to Italy, things really weren't so easy and sunny anymore, and things were definitely NOT back to normal. No matter how much she wanted them to be. While Hibari was concerned with his Disciplinary Committee and school, she was terribly worried and anxious about what her family had planned up their sleeves; she was terrified in case her family had sent anyone else to retrieve her, and she was also deeply troubled with the whole idea of Hibari and his connection with the Giglio Nero.

She began to feel depressed and mopey. And that's why she just wanted…. Something. She wanted something from Hibari to prove that she was wrong, and that things were back to the way they were. She wanted Hibari to prove things hadn't changed between them. Heck, the fact that she was a hitman didn't seem to faze Hibari one bit.

At the moment, she felt un-loved, lonely and miserable. Well to be honest, she totally deserved it – for blowing up the cabin. All his attention was also focused on the Committee, and she didn't like it. Of course she didn't like it! If your boyfriend seemed to show much more love into football playing on TV or sit in the couch and eat hotdogs all day watching Monster Truck than pay attention to you, then you'd be really angry. Then again, the whole point of this summer trip (while Tsuna etc went to the beach) was for the training of the Committee, not 'Kyouya and Kiriyuu's 2-person world'. Feh, 2-person world her ass. The cabin was infested with his committee members. Hardly a place for privacy.

She wanted to know if Hibari liked her back or not. And she REALLY didn't know. She sighed again. "I should've become an ascetic nun when I had the chance."

She also didn't think that Hibari was a person to shower his loved ones with love anyway; and maybe he had his own way of showing concern. But something would really been nice so she would at least know that he DID like her. She would shower Hibari with love if he wanted; she wouldn't mind. She sighed again.

Being lovesick wasn't good for one's health.

………….

While Kiriyuu began to think too far ahead into her future, Hibari was mainly concerned with the present. He managed to learn a lot of things about Kiriyuu as the next few days strolled by. "I thought you didn't hold grudges against people." He said.

What was wrong with her? He saw a dramatic change in personality - She was actually less annoying than usual; she was all quiet and depressed half the time, and stayed in the corner like a mouse. She wasn't obedient. She wasn't rebellious. This wasn't like Kiriyuu at all. She even hesitated to talk back to Hibari. Usually she wouldn't even think twice before answering back with some stupid comment and statement. But now she would pause, ponder with a hand under her chin, and then clear her throat and retaliate with a well, thought-out response. Not like Kiriyuu at all.

She looked up at him innocently. "What a horrible thing to accuse me of, Kyouya. I don't detest Kusakabe-san; I understand that he is merely an acquaintance of yours that you heavily value and therefore I don't see why I should despise someone who has supported and benefitted you by taking a moral stance by your side."

See what he meant? Urgh… she was being difficult again. And trying to act smart. Or maybe she really was smart but simmered herself down because she was so immature and an attention-seeker half the time. How could she live like that?? The better question was, how could Kiriyuu be like that? Hibari really expected more from her. He had to admit, maybe… maybe he _**was**_ disappointed in her…

Kiriyuu combed away a knot in her hair still with her head plastered on the table, her face-flat; at least they were kind enough to let her inside the cabin to brush her hair and wash her face. Damn, her hair was getting into tighter knots than usual because she didn't take the proper haircare products with her. Why was he even talking about this? She was too busy focusing her attention to her poor hair than listen to a lecture about Kusakabe-san, or whatever Hibari was talking about. Something about Kusakabe-san though, right?

"Then why did you put a boiled egg in his shoe during Swimming practice?" Hibari continued.

The brush dropped out of her hand as she sat back up. "…Uh… That… wasn't… me…?"

Okay, she was probably back to normal now.

"They saw you. Even Kusakabe."

"…So what?" She snorted back at him, then proceeded in dropping her face back over the surface of the table.

Kiriyuu and Kusakabe-san's relationship wasn't getting any better.

The next few days seemed like a hellish chore-infested summer vacation to Kiriyuu; plus, things weren't getting any better between her and Hibari also seemed to get worse. Kusakabe-san was also there and wasn't helping at all. She was also very alone because she was the only girl here, and Hibari didn't pay any attention to her - he took his Committee for training almost 12/3.5 out of 24/7. The rest was spent beating-up Kiriyuu for blowing up beans in cans whenever she was in charge of catering business because she couldn't use the can opener properly and no-one bothered to help her out, either. Besides, seeing Kiriyuu get beat up was fun.

Hibari took on the role of an austere Drill Sergeant, wearing a white shirt, loose combatant pants and thick boots – you know, the ones for trudging through ankle-deep snow and for kicking people – well, that's what Hibari used them for anyway. She actually thought he didn't really suit this type of image – heck, she had never seen him wear combat camouflage trousers before anyway. Hibari's change of wardrobe annoyed her, and the fact that she was 20 miles from home also annoyed her. To make up for a missing TV, she sought entertainment from watching Hibari torture the poor things at the sidelines as she did the laundry; they practised things similar to what people in the army did – roll around in the mud under barbed wire and go through obstacle courses.

His Disciplinary Committee could've done much better, though; their progress seemed to be a bit poorer than last year's, especially when it came to the Beep Test and the Cross Country Race. Hibari had been stuck in a foul mood all day. And Kiriyuu was actually helping this time – by staying away from him.

After breakfast of pork and more beans in a can – which she missed out on since she was a vegetarian, instead, finding some food-fuel from a small 90-calorie bar of wrinkled up raisins glued to extra-dry cereal she brought with her - she snickered as she watched the Disciplinary Committee jog ten laps around the perimeter of the Cabin, while scrubbing away at more shirts and underpants. By this time, she didn't seem to really care that her hands hurt and were getting bright red and even pulsating. Hibari was also jogging with them. It seemed that being in top physical shape was also crucial for him, too. Then again, she didn't want to see a flabby Hibari, or a too buffed-up Hibari, either. It made her shudder. She watched him run; the little beads of sweat falling off strands of his fine hair like water on leaves. She watched his dog-tag glimmer in the sun and the gentle, heave of his chest with each breath he took as he ran in long strides.

She wanted to sigh in bliss. But she suppressed it. Hibari didn't need unnecessary distractions here. Kiriyuu made a surprisingly mature decision to stop thinking about herself all the time and to think about other people for once. This trip was all about his disciplinary committee, remember? It was not about her. It was about the committee. Not her, but the committee. Not her. Okay, I think you get the picture now.

Eventually, she spotted Kusakabe-san and Hibari jogging beside each other at the same pace. Kiriyuu stopped in her actions ultimately. As Kusakabe neared, she glared at him (not so mature now, eh?). He noticed, broke eye-contact with her and jogged further away from Hibari. Kiriyuu nodded inwardly, smiling triumphantly herself and continued washing at the clothes in the bucket. She would act selfish this time – she did want Hibari all for herself. She didn't want to share him with anyone at all.

Once she was done with the laundry, Kiriyuu fixed herself a tomato and lettuce sandwich with quorn paste. She was watching Hibari again; she was about to bite into the loaf but held it up with her mouth half-open, as Hibari jogged past again. He glared at her; she watched him in bliss from afar. She still did like him. But it did feel like there was some kind of invisible barrier between them and Kiriyuu felt like that she and Hibari were drifting apart. Drifting… drifting… slowly, but surely. And she didn't want that.

She still didn't eat as Hibari jogged farther away from her. She didn't feel very hungry anymore. Eventually, the lettuce and tomato dropped out of her sandwich and landed over her lap. Kiriyuu cursed, but as Hibari made his way back past her, she looked back up at him, completing ignoring the fact that her trousers stained with red splodges and seeds.

Kiriyuu was being a bit too much like a whelk. Definition of the common whelk: A hideous mollusc sea creature that retracts and extracts from within its protective shell when feeding or threatened. And right now, she was feeding (on her sandwich), and she was feeling threatened (by Kuskabe).

Eventually, Hibari stopped his eighth lap while his other members completed their fifth or fourth lap, and walked up to Kiriyuu. He was still sweating; she ogled at the way how his white t-shirt clung to him. "I heard some more things." He said, panting a little.

Kiriyuu looked up tiredly at him, now realising that she had stained her best trousers without even noticing for at least ten minutes. "What? Look, I don't hate him, okay?" This could become a full-time argument if this was kept this up.

"That's not it."

"Eto, then what is it?"

"I heard – " Hibari took off his shirt, and as the Disciplinary Committee jogged past them, they went 'WHOOOO, GO HIBARI-SENPAI!' as he handed her the shirt to wash later on. Kiriyuu just stared at his half-naked body that was hers to look at. She didn't look away – she didn't even blink. Just stare. Stare. Stare…

He broke her out of her stupor. " - That you're jealous of Kusakabe." He said, crossing his arms over his chest as Kiriyuu handed him a new shirt from the dry laundry basket. He pulled it over his head and down, she still watched. And no, Hibari was not flirting. Hibari never flirts, duh. His shirt was just getting really minging and stuff so he had to change immediately. Nothing wrong with that.

She eventually moved after approximately five seconds. "Pfft … why would I be jealous of him?" She said with a disbelieving smile that meant 'you're crazy', looking away from him with a scoff and a flick of her hair.

"Because you think he's in love with me." He replied with extremely half-lidded eyes.

_Silence. _Not even crickets chirping in the background.

She stared wide-eyed at Hibari, then turned back, looking shiftily side to side. "E-Eh… how'd you… where'd… I mean… why are you telling me this??"

"So you'll stop having stupid, feeble, simple thoughts going through your stupid, feeble, simple mind." He clonked her over the head with his clenched fist.

Even though Hibari always ended up insulting her some way or the other no matter what she said, Kiriyuu felt extremely miserable this time. She flinched. "OW! What's wrong with being a bit jealous?" She protested back, throwing her arms in the air in defeat. "He's competition! He's known you longer than I have, he's stronger than me, eto, he even has great hair!"

Hibari's eye twitched. "What?"

"Erm… Never mind…… Hmph. He's a close friend of yours, right?"

"No. I don't need friends. That's mingling."

She sighed inwardly as she pulled the wet bucket from beside her, and stuffed the shirt he had just given her inside. She scrubbed at it for a few minutes, then got back up from the porch, and rolled up her sleeves further up her arms. "Okay, I want to drop this matter. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hang these dry."

"Do something about your pants first."

She looked down at herself as she picked up the bucket. "Oh. I'll go change then."

Suddenly, her foot got caught in a slab, and she stumbled forward with the bucket. It didn't go slow-motion this time as the bucket fell and the clothes went everywhere over the mud, but Kiriyuu didn't fall – she was suddenly pulled flat up against Hibari – who had caught her before she could embarrass herself in front of him any further. She always had a knack to do that without even trying. Kiriyuu stared at him; he stared at her. She was actually stepping on his boot, but he didn't exactly notice because it was too thick, even if she had big feet.

A moment passed. Then another. How long was a moment? Kiriyuu didn't know. But it felt long.

Kiriyuu's eyes widened slightly, and that same awkward sensation at their close proximity rushed through her again - she hurriedly pulled herself away from him and smoothed herself down, regaining herself. Hibari noticed, but he didn't say anything, just watched her as she quickly began to gather up the clothes back into the bucket and sighed heavily. That meant she'd have to wash them all over again. However, the bucket was promptly snatched out from her hands.

"Eh? Kyouya?" She didn't notice that he had squatted down beside her. He suddenly grabbed her hands, inspecting them.

Kiriyuu's face went bright red for four reasons - number one, she deemed her hands as 'fugly', with the peeling skin and red, flammable-looking flesh and she had always hated her hands, number two, she bit her fingernails – a bad habit of hers, and number three, Hibari was holding her hands. Hibari was holding her hands!! Number four, she felt uncomfortable because he was doing so. She did, however, inwardly sighed in bliss, then she hurried her hands out of his as well - "U-Uh… Kyouya?"

"I'll have someone else wash the clothes."

"Eh?"

"Take a break." He muttered.

She blinked dumbly, and then, she smiled widely, before her eyes teared up. "Kyouya feels compassion!" She wailed – she hesitated, then threw her arms around him.

Hibari was starting to get angry at her actions now. "No, I don't. You're doing a horrible job of washing the clothes. We've been running laps for more than three hours and you still haven't gone past the first pile yet." He barked at her, trying to pry her off.

"Eto, okie, whatever Kyouya says." She sang happily, her arms still glued around him. Her view had changed slightly now – maybe Hibari DID care about her…

"Get off me."

She blinked for a few moments, then obediently did so, and stared at the ground with a shrewd expression on her face. She didn't want to infuriate Hibari off like she usually did. "Hey. Kyouya?" She mumbled out.

"What?"

"Get Kusakabe-san to wash them."

……………

_Maybe I'm approaching from the wrong perspective. I should be more optimistic about my future with Hibari. Okay, I shall be myself again. I shall be happy, spunky, spontaneous, outgoing Kiriyuu once again!_

Being depressed and mopey all the time wasn't good in life. It was better to NOT let your emotions rule your life, right? She was now on the way to the onsen; Kiriyuu loved baths. She would always be the one who took a bath first, and then it'd be the rest of the manly men. The bad thing was that the bath was actually outdoor; the onsen in the wilderness. Sigh. Kiriyuu had to dash out with her clothes, then quickly strip off and jump into the water before anyone else could see. Oh, and Hibari warned anyone who dared to spy on her, would wake up the next day with their hair burnt off and would have to do 10,000 push-ups in the rain. He wasn't kidding.

Though, no-one said anything about taking Kiriyuu's clothes…

There was a knock on the door. Hibari looked up from his agenda book (which Kiriyuu mistook for his 'diary' and tried to open and read).

She came in anyway; dripping wet and only in a towel. She looked unbothered by this fact though, as Hibari's eye twitched, and just stared at him in return with half-lidded eyes. "Someone stole my clothes." She blurted out to him. "I think it was Kusakabe-san."

"I doubt it."

"Hmph. You should be on my side. I'm your cousin."

"I never take sides. Even if you are my cousin."

…So that meant that Hibari had fully acknowledged Kiriyuu that she wasn't his cousin anymore and was basically…. A stranger? And a stranger from Italy, too. Hibari got up from his seat, took off his shirt and also handed an extra pair of shorts to her from the dresser; they both seemed realise the inevitable – whoever who had stolen her clothes would never own up, so they decided to drop the subject. He turned round so she could dry off and put on the clothes – the shirt was too big and so were the shorts. Hm, Hibari didn't realise that her legs looked a bit thin, spotless and sleek and – OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING?!

"Well, I'm going back outside now. Night." She said, waving at him.

He watched her walk back to the door, sniffling and snorting. Her skin was unusually pale and she looked dreadful. Outside his window, a loud crash of thunder roared past followed by a flip of white lightning, then another thunderstrike, and an eerie howl from the 80mph gale. "Hey." He began, then stopped. Damn, he knew he would kick himself for suggesting this…

She turned back round. "What?"

"You're staying inside."

She blinked at him. "H-Huh?"

"Get your pillow and blanket. You're sharing with me."

"R-Really?" She had a silly grin on her face, and then she practically hovered out with no feet touching the floor of his room and floated back in with her pillow and blanket as he instructed, which she threw over his bed. She was enthusiastic about sharing a bed with Hibari but in a different perspective. Wow, this was probably the first time in her life that she had dirty thoughts while she stared at Hibari and – OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING?!

Wow, they've even began to sound like each other, too. Although, if Kiriyuu said 'I'll bite you to death', then she'd get beaten up by Hibari due to copyright issues.

"I don't like that smug look on your face," Hibari said, as he clambered in his side of the bed; he still looked a bit affected by the way his shirt hung on her. "Whatever you're thinking of, stop thinking about it now." The covers were pulled up over them.

She did erase those thoughts though, and shrugged inwardly, before leaping into the bed beside him with a shriek of joy and snuggled into the covers. They were a bit itchy, though. "Hey. Kyouya?" She asked.

"What?" He demanded back.

"You're not a cyborg, are you?"

"… No."

A stupid question. There goes that matter answered and out of the window. Well, at least she knew that Hibari was still human and therefore at least capable of love, compassion and understanding – to some minor extent. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let her back into his room…

"Hey. Kyouya?" She began again, her voice muffled, as she rolled onto her stomach and laid face flat over the pillow.

"What now?" He said, resisting the urge to smother her with the pillow. Go on, do it! Then all his problems would be over!

Kiriyuu clutched the covers tightly. _Okay, be optimistic. Be optimistic!_ She then bundled the pillow into her arms and settled her chin over it. "I just noticed something - We're bedmates." She giggled at him from behind the pillow.

"So what?"

"We can have pillow talk!"

God, no. He thought. "I want to sleep."

"I want to talk."

"Then talk. I won't be listening."

Kiriyuu felt slightly uncomfortable, but decided to continue on anyway. "Okay then, I'll talk. You can listen if you want. Hm, where should I start? Eto… maybe back to when I was younger… okay, here goes…. I have vivid memories of these, so, right, er-hem. When I was 5, I wanted to be an enthusiastic cheerleader. When I was 6, I wanted to be a promising musician, when I was 7, I wanted to be an awe-inspiring Vet, when I was 8, I wanted to be a professional wrestler, and I forgot what I wanted to be for the next couple of years, but now… I know what I want to be! Well, they always said that I would be a failure in life because of my poor grades and performance in the Academy, but I know my skills will be applied somewhere else!"

Oh yeah? He thought, and what was that?

"I can apply my skills in being Kyouya's future wife." But she didn't sound too enthusiastic.

He sighed. He was forcibly engaged to a nutjob already without knowing. He had a rough idea that his future would be like this. In fact, he had a slight idea of what his future would look like -- There would probably be a 30 something year old Hibari sitting up in the bed, with glasses and a book in his hands, a cup of tea beside him on the bedside table, then a 30-something year old Kiriyuu sitting beside him with an afro of frizzled ginger hair, draped in a wine-red silk gown, painting her toenails red while prattling to some friend of hers over the phone all about her mid-life crisis and lonely life, a lit cigarette wobbling over her bottom lip and jammed in between her yellowing, stained teeth.

That was what he expected Kiriyuu to be like in the future. Yeesh.

"Yes, yes, I'll learn properly how to make Kyouya's favourite food, like hamburgers and Japanese food, we'll open up a Bird clinic which turns into a dangerous weaponry shop specialising in tonfas and Sniper guns and many, many more!"

Kiriyuu's idea of their future would be a 30 something year old Hibari with glasses and a knitted vest sitting up in bed, with a birdcage bedside him, wearing a smart, button-up type pyjamas. And Kiriyuu would be bedside him also, reading to their 12 children who were also on the bed, a bedtime story – a bedtime story all about the romantic love yet tragic, epic love stories about Hibari and Kiriyuu, obviously, and even teaching them how to spell the word 'Mississippi' and 'Mediterranean' by the use of a Mary Poppins-like song. Wow, what a contrast compared to Hibari's thought.

"What are you doing?"

She drooled, still absorbed in her musings. "Sooooo perfect….Why yes, Hibari Jnr, you did inherit those green eyes from me…"

He conked her over the head and she finally burst out of her thoughts, and looked up at him. She had been rubbing her cheek against his leg with a dreamy expression on her face for the past 4 minutes. Why she was doing that, she didn't know. She let go of him, grinning awkwardly, and coughed into her fist.

"Um, sorry."

"Go to sleep." He was feeling really tired; and Kiriyuu's excessive blabbing and antics weren't helping at all.

Hibari looked insufferable. She sighed and just flopped back against the bed.

There was an awkward silence. Hibari liked silence, but Kiriyuu thought otherwise. She thought that Hibari hadn't cared to listen to her at all, and she was right. She stayed limp over the bed, feeling pretty silly for rambling like that. And thinking like that. Even though she was getting to share a bed with Hibari, it didn't feel so great anymore.

**Next morning…**

Hibari realised that just like the members of his Disciplinary Committee, he needed something to motivate Kiriyuu to do the chores and put more effort into the work. She had been pretty lazy over the past few hours. She flipped open a magazine and was never seen since. The Disciplinary Committee were easy – all he had to was hang a piece of sandwich from the porch and whoever finished their work-out could get one. Kiriyuu was harder. She thought she was overweight so she always watched what she ate carefully. And he certainly wasn't going to motivate her with positive reinforcement. Then again, she was the only person who had to do all the work of cleaning and cooking so she did deserve something different, and so she didn't think it was quite fair when he hung a piece of lettuce in front of her.

"… I know I'm a vegetarian, but I can control my hunger. Unlike your Elvis Presley-influenced goons." She told him. And she wasn't smart enough to think of a plan to dissent against Hibari. Actually, she didn't even know how to. Or want to, anyway. Right now, his lunch certainly didn't look like she had put enough effort in cooking it. Also, there were two growing piles of laundry stuffed in the corner needing to be washed.

"I'll work more if I get something decent back in return." She added, sitting cross-legged and cross-armed on the bed, raking through a magazine. Yeah, she'd dumped chores to read the Agony Aunt section. Or so Hibari thought; she was actually reading about Couple Therapy but was trying to cleverly hide it. "-Sigh- I know just how you feel, Jenny, boys can be so annoying…." She said out loud.

"How about a death-threat?" He yelled from the open doorway, clenching his tonfa.

"Eto, it won't work. I'm used to getting beaten up by you." She said, not even looking up at him. He frowned. She was getting used to him beating her up, or threatening her, even blackmailing her.

"Fine. … What do you want?" He growled at her. He inwardly flinched when he said that. Complying to someone else's demands wasn't on his list on how to live his life to the full.

Things between her and Hibari were getting rocky. There were more awkward silences than usual. Hibari made her feel like she was wasting his time, and she just didn't feel happy anymore. _NO! I can't think like that!_ She shrugged at him, thinking slightly. _Okay, Kiriyuu. How do couples settle things out? Remember page 43 -- Oh yeah, they try and learn more about each other. They talk to each other._

"You could tell me a bit more about yourself each time I do something, okay?" She suggested, realising that she'd probably get beaten up for asking this, too. Actually, this was also a plight sparked from Kiriyuu to get to know Hibari better, after she realised that Kusakabe-san knew much more about Hibari then she did.

"Like what?"

"Um… Your birthday? Your… I dunno… things about yourself. That's what people do. That's what… people who've known each other for a long time do. They tell each other about things." She suggested, stumbling slightly with her words.

Silence.

He glared at her from halfway across the room. The tension was thick and Kiriyuu began to sweat. "… I didn't use to live in Namimori." He eventually grumbled out.

She blinked slightly. She didn't even think twice that Hibari would co-operate. He tossed the bundle of laundry over her head. "Now get to work."

"Yeh, sure."

Prying information from Hibari felt like… trying to hack into the FBI's Top Secret and Confidential files or something (which meant it was practically impossible). He watched her sweep her messy hair into a loose ponytail, then re-do again when she had missed out a few strands of hair – he'd lived long enough with her to understand the physics of Kiriyuu. She slipped on her shoes and dusted down her trousers, then looked back up at him.

"Something wrong?"

"No."

She shrugged, then picked up the laundry basket again and started to leave the cabin.

"……Wait."

Kiriyuu looked at him with her head cocked to the side, and Hibari walked up, his boots sounding off echoing hollow footsteps around the wooden walls and floors, and stopped shortly in front of her.

She began to worry about his unusual behaviour almost immediately. "What? What's wrong? You don't feel well? I brought some paracetamol! Not that? I brought some Lemsip, or do you want some Actifed? I heard it – "

Hibari was standing too close to her for comfort. Kiriyuu paled instantly, eyeing the contours of his lips wistfully, sweating slightly. Her hands felt clammy and almost every muscle in her body tightened, even her heart seemed to have shrivelled up within her ribcage somewhat. She just stood there, watching, watching his lips. They moved. She couldn't hear him, and her eye twitched and swallowed down somewhat. She really was starting to get lovesick. He leaned in forward. Kiriyuu did the same and almost closed her eyes, the sound of pots and pans were practically banging inside her mind. Their lips neared -- How long she had waited for this moment! The moment he would ki -

Kiriyuu felt a sharp blow deal to her head and she squeaked as she stepped back, un-puckered her lips in progress, and snapped her eyes back open as she rubbed her aching head. "W-Why'd you do that for…?"

"I felt deprived." He called over his shoulder as he brushed past her.

Kiriyuu raised an eyebrow. "… Eh?" Then she scratched awkwardly at her elbow. "Hmm, well, he hasn't beaten me up a lot compared to back home since we got here… Yeah, that must be it…" She bit her lip, and before Hibari could leave, she called after him, slightly desperate. "Wait -- Hibari!"

She had reverted back to calling him by his surname. That was strange. He turned back round.

Kiriyuu was still standing there, now looking rather dejected. "Okay – this has been nagging me for the past week that we've been here and I should really get it out of my system. But…uh… how do I say this…?"

"Get on with it. Stop wasting my time."

She literally froze. _I really do waste his time… _She sucked in her gut. "Do I… do I annoy you… that much, Hibari?" She squeaked out.

She squeezed her eyes shut; communicating her emotions wasn't exactly her strong point, but she felt like it was the most important thing now. She fumbled with her words clumsily, scratching at her elbow, beginning to feel troubled and overwhelmed all of a sudden.

"I-It's okay if you think so, I mean, I am a pretty annoying person but I really, really care about what people think of me and… and I know that ever since Guiseppe came, things actually began to get pretty rough and awkward between us even though I didn't… I mean, I refused to think like that… B-But now I'm not too sure anymore, I mean… "

And then she did another whelk response; she shrunk back and seemed to have shrivelled into her clothes as she turned away from him.

Kiriyuu began fiddling with the rims of her shirt, avoiding his gaze. "I… I don't think whatever happened when Guiseppe arrived should get in between us, but lately I really think that, I… I can't seem to face you anymore like I used to and I can't talk to you properly without feeling that – well, it's even worse now because... because…" she croaked somewhat.

"… Because you make so confused; you give me all these mixed signals and even though you said that you didn't mean those words back then, but… frankly, I… I just don't know what to what believe in anymore. I don't know how to put up with you, or how to cope. And I'm so… I'm getting exhausted. It's like… everything I do… is to please _**you**_. And that's not how I wanted things to turn out like. I'm not myself anymore."

She watched him closely. There was so much more she wanted to say, but suddenly… it had all vanished from her mind, and she was clueless about what she had just said. _Say something, Hibari! Say that those weren't mixed signals and you really do care about me even though you probably won't show it. Don't make me feel like I'm worth nothing to you. _The thoughts echoed desperately in her mind.

_Prove that I'm wrong! Please!_

Hibari was listening - but what did she mean by that comment? That '_I'm not myself anymore'_?

He remained silent. Kiriyuu continued, hoping to extract some kind of response from him, "And… I try, I really do try to see past that and look positive and think that you still at least care for me and I know that it's probably my fault too because I feel like I'm expecting something from you – but, really, is really too much to ask and sometimes I do think it would be nice if you showed me some – "

"That's enough." He said tiredly, eventually.

Kiriyuu held her breath.

"Save your useless rambling." He added, turning back to his front and away from her. "I'm not interested."

Without another word, Hibari left the cabin.

Kiriyuu felt an extreme pang of disappointment and unhappiness well up inside from the bottom of her gut. "O-Of course you're not. I-I don't blame you, Hibari." She mumbled out.

She couldn't believe it. She now knew that Hibari really did find her annoying, pointless and stupid no matter what. There were a lot of reasons for Kiriyuu to feel embarrassed and awkward around Hibari. He never decided to have a decent conversation with her. He insulted her more than he complimented her. He insulted her in front of others, and even though she laughed them off half the time as a joke, it really did hurt inside. He never gave her the feeling back that he_ really_ did like her, so she just thought that she was just the love-sick one preening and fawning over him all the time, annoying the hell out of him, wasting his time.

So now she felt utterly humiliated. She watched his retreating back silently.

But this was _Hibari_.

Kiriyuu inwardly sighed; she realised she had had this Hibari-related debate going on in her mind before. She knew that that was Hibari's character, his personality and his traits. Romance and love didn't suit Hibari. _He wasn't interested._ Kiriyuu let out a discouraged grunt and dabbed at her eyes again. She knew she would never be able to change that in him, so that meant it was her fault. She was the one who didn't think of that right in the start. Kiriyuu's mind felt that it was being compressed until it just became mush. She was confused, she was stuck, she felt trapped. She didn't know what was happening now, but she did know that -

_I've had enough. _She thought, as she crumpled up the remaining piece of laundry in her hands that was waiting to be washed, and threw it down on the floor carelessly. _I guess that's it. It was one-sided after all._ _Hibari doesn't like me._

_It's…_

_It's over._

This was a pretty complicated chapter. I guess it reflects Kiriyuu's doubt and confusion towards Hibari and her feelings for him despite all the things they've been through together.


	24. TYL and TYB

**Note:**

This is the start of the 'middle', when this story is not much of a drabble anymore and becomes tediously complicated and serious!

**Chapter 24**

_TYL and TYB_

**Ten Years into the Future…**

The eradication process of the Vongola was supposed to be very simple. How awful, Ottuso Kiriyuu thought, but there was nothing she could seemingly do. The extermination of a family, who had so much history, and had done nothing to hers to deserve this seemed…pitiful.

She was participating, after all, with her back pasted against the sturdy, fortress walls of some random, nameless Vongola Underground Safety Base that would was going to become forgotten ruins once they were done 'cleaning' the place. This had only been the second base the Millefiore had ransacked; how many safe havens were left for the Vongola, Kiriyuu didn't know. The war had just started.

This one was in Japan. And this was another raid. Kiriyuu hadn't been back in Japan since for a long time. This base had been teeming with several refugees of the Vongola who had escaped the clutches of the forces of the Millefiore before, but now Kiriyuu's squad had been assigned to take them out once their co-ordinates were pin-pointed and re-discovered. No-one could escape the Millefiore. Therefore the operation happened immediately; they'd stormed in via helicopter, landed just a few feet away from the hidden precinct, and invaded when they had been the least expecting. It was 4am after all.

Kiriyuu rubbed at her eyes tiredly slightly. _I had the perfect chance to kill the Vongola when I got hit by the bazooka and went to the past. _

Another voice sounded off from within her mind. _**But you didn't.**_

She sighed. _I don't get it. What's wrong with me these days?_

An explosion nearby caused the rocky walls behind her to shudder violently for a short moment, causing her to fall over slightly. She regained her position once that was over and slotted another shell into her rifle. She cursed under her breath as she peered out from her position, her mind absorbed with thoughts she didn't need, well, not at this inconvenient time anyway; No-one would ever know about that incident. A smoking bomb hurtled over, flying into the air and skipped towards their direction, fizzing out all sorts of noxious gas and other unpleasant odours designed to render people unconscious within seconds. She sighed, signalled to the rest of her squad members, who nodded back at her, and everyone strapped the Millefiore gas masks on. The bomb was made useless, futile. The one who had thrown the bomb had thus blown his cover and ten bullet holes embedded his body. He dropped, dead. One down, thirteen to go.

Kiriyuu spied an opening off to their left, just a few feet away. So far, it was the only visible opening. It could be where the Underground control system was. Maybe she could send some people over to try and disable the Vongola's Security co-ordination. After all, that goddamn alarm that was constantly ringing and the flashing red lights were a practical danger to her hearing and eyesight. However, her plan was subdued for the moment, the pint-sized Vongola army were blocking off all their paths for further assault.

She slipped out of her cover and peered out, then pulled back again. She pulled the mic on her lapel up near her mouth.

"Team A, go to the left and advance up to the Vongola security system. Team B will stay here to hold off the attackers and act as bait. Watch out for snipers on the second floor." Kiriyuu fired a shot into a sniper up at the second floor. "Don't bother to use your rings…Normal weapons will do the tick," She yawned slightly, "this is hardly worth it. I will assist Team A from the back. Elia will cover Team B. Move out, over."

She received a number of responses, and soon, she signalled again through the mic once things seemed clear for the moment; and through the smoke, they came charging onto the small, complicated, blood-filled battlefield of the Underground hell. Countless of gas-mask black figures darted out from their positions, weaving in between the showers of bullets and assault fire; Team A made their way up as commanded, while Team B just went out with a full-fledged attack, Moss-12's and AK-47's firing in all sorts of direction.

A Vongola caught a shotgun blast in full in the head; his skull exploded like eggshell, brains everywhere. Next, a barrel goes exploding into the corner, tearing off the limbs of more unfortunate Vongola victims.

They never stood a chance.  
They were ambushed.  
They were poorly prepared, overpowered, they were unorganised.

They were going to die.

Kiriyuu moved from her hidden position that was away from the bloodshed and dropped her sniper crossbow in front of her, just near the edge of her new covering place, and leered towards the sniper crosshairs, the nozzle pointing towards the second floor balcony. A Vongola enemy sniper came into view – looked left and right cautiously; Kiriyuu left no time to spare. She pulled the trigger and the enemy sniper was shot in the neck.

She retreated back into her cover again. "Oh, and before I forget… Spare no-one."

**Ten Years back in the Past… **

Things weren't getting better between Hibari and Kiriyuu. The cabin training programme was finally over and everyone was slowly packing up and things were being finished off. An aspect of Hibari was that he didn't linger and hold onto things the way Kiriyuu did. What she said back at the cabin, was never mentioned again. It burned in her mind, the words she said, and his response.

Kiriyuu thought it was time to move on. By that, she meant that she should just drop her previous insecurities about her relationship with Hibari, accept the fact that Hibari would never really give a rat's ass about her predicaments and feelings, and continue on with life. So she did. Well, she tried. She hoped that things would go back to the way it used to. But it didn't really. The same awkwardness still lingered in the air, and now Kiriyuu just felt even more embarrassed whenever she was around Hibari.

But she tried to make sure that things stayed the same as it used to be.

Tsuna knocked on the door. He hadn't seen Kiriyuu for some time now; it was a shame she couldn't go to the beach with them. She'd missed out an opportunity to beat up irresponsible and inattentive lifeguards.

Kiriyuu opened the door a few moments later, looking rather dishevelled and dreary, the colour of her skin was paler than usual, and her dark circles under her eyes contrasted more and stood out. Her eyes looked tired and pink around the white edges; the green of her iris was dull and soulless. Her face fell immediately once she looked at him (actually, it couldn't fall anymore than it already had). "Oh." She merely uttered out.

"Hi, Kiriyuu, what're you – " Tsuna then got an eyeful of all the bag looped over her, the suitcase lagging behind her. His eyes popped. "Y-You're l – "

"Yes," She said, almost exasperatedly as she brushed past him and shut the door behind her. " – I am leaving. For good. I never want to see Namimori again. Or Hibari for all that matter."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. In fact, I don't think I care anymore."

"Kiriyuu?"

"What?"

"…Are… Are you okay?"

She 'hn'ed with a pull of her upper lip, and she scrunched up her nose. "Eh. Okay. Okay? Of course I'm okay! Why wouldn't I be okay?! Just because Hibari has finally made me realise that he doesn't like me at all and I had been wasting my time in trying to get him to like me back?! That's absolutely no reason to NOT be okay about! It doesn't mean that I'm going to mope around, does it?!" She yelled at Tsuna, who shrank away from her further.

She continued her banter regardless Tsuna was actually listening to her properly or not. "Now if you'll kindly step out of my way, I have a bus to catch to Namimori airport. I don't have any tickets back to Italy, but I'm sure I'll work something out. Goodbye, Tsuna. It was nice knowing you."

He paled instantaneously. The words of TYL Kiriyuu rung through his mind like a thousand fire alarms. _Hibari and Kiriyuu split up roughly this time…. NO! I mustn't let this happen!!_

"Waaaaaait! He cried out, spreading his arms out to block her path. She gave him a warning glare; he shrank slightly, but he refused to back away. "You can't – leave. You absolutely cannot leave… not, uh… not when you haven't said goodbye to us yet. I came over here to ask if you'd come to my house for a barbecue this afternoon. Please attend – and hopefully change your mind about leaving Namimori?" He said that with a very innocent smile. "Please?"

She sighed. "Tsuna, I appreciate it, but just – "

"Oh, come on! Yamamoto and Kyoko-chan would be devastated if you left without saying goodbye!"

Kiriyuu pondered for a brief moment, then - "…. F-Fine…"

…………

She sighed heavily. Tsuna and the others had gone to the beach, whilst she suffered the worst summer holiday vacation she ever had with Hibari at the Camp. And she thought the fact that she went to Legoland with Longchamp when they dated 4 years ago was rubbish. This year's vacation hotspot so far was a nightmare. What was worse was that she was now invited to Tsuna's house the next day, to see her friends for the last time (probably), to see what they had brought home.

Tsuna knocked on the door and waited, giving Kiriyuu a hapless smile. "I forgot my keys." He said with an awkward grin.

"Whatever."

Tsuna turned back to his front, slightly uncomfortable.

Haru and Kyoko both opened it, giggled cheerfully at Kiriyuu and keel-hauled her aboard while Tsuna lumbered in himself. It was a lovely day, so they were holding a barbecue outside in the back garden, too. The guests were Gokudera (not entirely a guest), Yamamoto (yes, he was a guest), Ryohei, I-Pin. Lambo had buggered off somewhere to restock on some grenades or something. Nobody really cared anyway. Tsuna and Reborn were setting up the parasol, while Bianchi stirred her steaming, bubbling pot of poison-ice water and lifted up a few ice cubes she had dumped in; they all contained frozen bugs. Like that fly in the amber rock featured in Jurassic Park or whatnot. Yes, that wasn't normal.

"What's wrong, Kiriyuu?"

Almost everyone except from Gokudera asked her that. She waved them off and sulked in a dark corner.

"Hey, Kiriyuu-chan, check out the souvenirs we brought for you!" Yamamoto said cheerfully, leading her further into the garden. A horde of gifts and confectionary was then subsequently loaded onto her two hands. "It's a shame that you couldn't come with us to the beach."

Kiriyuu snorted.

"And check out Kyoko's photos!" Ryohei said, shoving an album in Kiriyuu's face. She accepted it after dumping the rest of the gifts onto the picnic mat for the moment.

"Can I go now?" The girl asked.

"What? Of course not! The party hasn't even started yet!" Ryohei exclaimed (he wasn't so extreme today. Maybe it was the heat that simmered it down).

She sat cross-legged, beside Yamamoto and Ryohei, while Haru and Kyoko went to help Bianchi, and Tsuna was with Gokudera setting the table. She went through the first bundle; Yamamoto had brought her three pieces of rock candy sticks that came in almost a swirl of every colour of the rainbow. Ryohei gave her a glittery pinwheel with a bell attached to it. Haru had got Kiriyuu some a pack of stickers of animals with googly eyes. Kyoko's gift was an elaborate, varnished seashell.

"Here." Gokudera said from behind Kiriyuu, and she almost shrieked. No-one had heard him come up behind them. "I feel sorry for you. You had to spend a month with Hibari and his lackeys."

A whiff of smoke was puffed into her face from his cigarette. A piece of string was also for hers for the taking. She accepted it; it was actually lopped to a helium balloon in the shape of a dolphin Gokudera brought for her. She blinked at it.

"Thanks, Goku-san…"

"Che, it was nothing."

Next, it was Tsuna. It seemed that Gokudera and Tsuna had finished setting the table and sat cross-legged beside them on the mat.

"Kiriyuu, this is for you from me and Reborn. It's also from Leon. He… uh, made it." Tsuna handed Kiriyuu a pair of rubber gloves.

"Oh, that's cool." She accepted the gloves, then – "EH? Where'd my balloon go?"

Everyone looked at Kiriyuu's hands – she was holding the gloves – that meant she had let go of the balloon by accident and –

Everyone now looked up. The balloon Gokudera had brought for Kiriyuu and perhaps suffered eternal embarrassment from the public as he walked home with it was now fluttering high above the house in the air. Never to return back to earth again, probably.

She blinked at it, then turned back to Gokudera. "Oops."

Gokudera stood back up gruffly, pointing accusingly at Kiriyuu. "You stupid idiot! I'm gonna kill you!!"

"Eeek!" Kiriyuu shrieked bloody murder as Gokudera's hands clamped around her neck, shaking her to and fro.

"Now, now, Hayato, it was just an accident!" Yamamoto bantered, as he pried Gokudera's hands off Kiriyuu's windpipe.

"Shut up, you baseball freak!"

"Octopus Head, stop ruining the day with your anger management problems! A gentleman should never raise his voice towards a lady!" Ryohei yelled back at Gokudera as Yamamoto blinked back at the silver guy innocently. Yamamoto was just trying to help, really.

"Don't get me started on you, too!" Gokudera yelled instead.

And it just got worse.

Kiriyuu squeezed out and away from Yamamoto and other the two, bickering boys. She stared at Tsuna pleadingly. "Can I please go? Look, my bags and suitcase are just over there. I'll pick them up, quickly tiptoe away and I'll be out of everyone's hair forever."

Tsuna was balancing a wobbling orange-flavoured jelly on a plate up to the table. "Um. No. Stay for dinner. And no, Bianchi is not cooking."

"…. Fine."

Kiriyuu actually wondered why she had bothered to listen to Tsuna and come to this absurdly wretched happy place of skippy fields and rainbows; everybody else was in a good mood, including Gokudera, surprisingly, after Tsuna goaded him with an extra helping of hotdog, while she was stuck with a raincloud over her head.

"Kiriyuu." Reborn said, as he approached her once everyone else returned to their duties.

She looked up at him. "…Reborn-sama…."

"Did something happen between you and Hibari?"

She wailed slightly, her bottom lip jutting out. "…Hibari… Hibari doesn't like me anymore! And I… I don't want to bother him anymore…"

"Bother?" Reborn asked.

"All this time… I just realised that it was me crushing on Hibari. And he doesn't like me at all! I feel like such an idiot."

"No, that's not true." Reborn replied, but Kiriyuu didn't sound convinced at all. "Hibari may not seem to show that he cares for you on the outside, but I know that Hibari prioritises you."

Kiriyuu whimpered again and shook her head. "I don't… I don't see it all."

Before Reborn could speak again, Tsuna's mama had approached them. She placed a hand on Kiriyuu's shoulder. "Kiri-chan, why do you look so unhappy? I know, mama will make her special homemade red bean pudding to cheer you up!" She winked at Reborn, who just nodded.

Kiriyuu's eyes teared up again. "Waaaah! Mama!!" She wailed loudly once more and plastered her face over Tsuna's mama's apron.

She smiled helplessly with a tiny sweat drop. "Oh dear… Kiri-chan…" Once Kiriyuu let go after smothering her eyes over her apron, Tsuna's mama sauntered back towards the kitchen, bumping into Tsuna in progress.

"Tsunie, Kiri-chan doesn't look so good," Tsuna's mama said as she saw Kiriyuu trudge over to a recliner deck chair and flop over it, then pull a magazine from the desk and put it over her face.

Tsuna watched on. "…. Something's bothering her. She seemed okay before summer vacation started though." He took a step forward towards Kiriyuu, but Ryohei waved at him over to come and help with the DIY barbecue set.

Kiriyuu felt a light tug on her hand that was hanging out of the chair, and lifted the magazine off her head. It was I-Pin. She was talking to Kiriyuu in her own language, and Kiriyuu just watched helplessly. "I'm sorry, I don't understand. Leave me alone, leave me be, I am a poor and woeful sap. No-one should pay attention to me. I'll just ruin their day."

I-Pin impatiently tugged again.

"…What is it?"

The boiled egg teetered tottered on one foot to another. She was even sweating.

"Oh, I see. Come on then, take my hand."

Kiriyuu and I-Pin waddled back inside the house, and went up the stairs. Kiriyuu opened the bathroom door for I-Pin and she hurried inside. The door was slammed shut.

"I know you can't reach the door handle, but I thought there would be something that would help you in case Tsuna, Bianchi or Tsuna's mama weren't at home." Kiriyuu said out loud as she stood behind the door.

I-Pin replied back in her own language again. A few seconds later, and I-Pin re-emerged out. She looked up at Kiriyuu; she stared back at the egghead. I-Pin grabbed onto Kiriyuu's trouser leg and tugged again, pointing to halfway down the hall. Then I-Pin let go, and bounded down.

Kiriyuu blinked, shrugged inwardly, and followed I-Pin. "You're lucky, you know. You seemingly have no ears, your brain is presumably the size of your head, which it should be, and that means it's really big so you must be really smart. And you certainly don't live with a violent housemate. You're so lucky…"

I-Pin stopped outside a door that was slightly ajar, and then proceeded in once Kiriyuu arrived. The room was just a normal bedroom, but I-Pin clambered up her bed and gestured to a ragdoll propped up beside her pillow. Kiriyuu sat down on the bed and looked at I-Pin expectantly.

I-Pin handed Kiriyuu the ragdoll. It wasn't finished, or looked like anything in particular, but the features of the doll looked rather similar to… Hibari. With black locks and slanted eyes. Definitely Hibari.

Kiriyuu sighed. "Are we… rivals?"

The baby spoke again.

Kiriyuu put a hand to her chin. "Hmm, no, not rivals. Right? Being rivals is just plain silly. We have a 10 year age gap – um, it is 10, right?"

No response from I-Pin, who just stared at Kiriyuu blankly.

"Urgh, never mind…"

I-Pin prodded the half-finished ragdoll at Kiriyuu, who just blinked at the doll dumbly. She didn't understand, but it seemed that…. I-Pin wanted Kiriyuu to keep the doll. She took the doll off I-Pin's tiny, porcelain doll-like hands and looked at the doll. I-Pin nodded as soon as Kiriyuu glanced back at the infant, unsure.

"You want me to keep this?"

I-Pin nodded convincingly again. Kiriyuu didn't actually know if I-Pin knew Japanese or not. Maybe she understood some of it, but couldn't speak it.

"U-Um, thanks, but…"

I-Pin churned out abuse in her language at Kiriyuu – well, to Kiriyuu, it sounded like abuse – the infant's tone was really angry, anyway, and she shrunk.

"O-Okay! I'll keep it! Sheesh…" Kiriyuu stuffed the doll under her armpit and just stared back at the wall glumly. "I-Pin, why do you like Hibari so much? He's such a senseless, sadistic, insensitive, irrational, stupid jerk - "

I-Pin kicked Kiriyuu in the shin.

"OW! Why you little – " She stopped before she could carry out the horrible deed of strangling a poor, innocent child. Bad, she thought. Bad Kiriyuu!

Kiriyuu sat back instead, rubbing at her throbbing kneecap, throwing I-Pin a sour look as she spoke back to Kiriyuu in a matter-of-fact tone. I-Pin must've caught onto Hibari's name being mentioned in Kiriyuu's sentence, and realised that she was speaking ill of Hibari when Kiriyuu began to involve horrendous, werewolf-like facial expressions to articulate her dissatisfaction with Hibari. Hmmm. Kiriyuu's eyes sauntered over to the infant.

Then again, perhaps I-Pin wasn't so innocent as everyone thought she was. Maybe she knew more than they thought. Hmm…

"…. What? You don't think Hibari is a stupid, ruthless, miserable – OWWW! Will you cut that out?!" She roared at the egghead as I-Pin delivered another high-kick to Kiriyuu's other kneecap. It really hurt.

I-Pin snapped back at her like an angry crocodile.

Kiriyuu was somehow lost for words. She felt like she was being lectured by a baby. She was, actually. "You really don't think that Hibari is a jerk?"

This time, there was no kick in the leg.

"But you're still a baby – "

Another kick to the leg, and Kiriyuu was left writhing, clutching her knee in agony. "Okay, okay, I get it! Hibari isn't a bad person, and it doesn't matter if Hibari doesn't like me. It's life, and I should move on. Right?"

Kiriyuu then wondered how she came up with that. I-Pin didn't say anything of any sorts, except kick Kiriyuu continually.

"But what should I do? Leave Namimori? But I can't, Guiseppe said I had to wait for him until he comes back with news from the Giglio Nero. I could leave Hibari if I wanted…"

I-Pin pointed accusingly at Kiriyuu.

"W-What?" Kiriyuu asked, suddenly feeling afraid of the power of I-Pin.

I-Pin then pointed to a photo frame hanging on the wall, which Kiriyuu hardly noticed. She glanced over to it. Kiriyuu was featured in it, so was everyone else. She left the bed, and picked up the frame, returned to the bed and sat back down, inspecting the glossy cover. She recognised this picture.

"The camping trip…it was really fun. Even though I pissed Hibari off and he stormed off by himself. I went to look for him. I apologised, and he forgave me. Hibari and I also shared a tent." She murmured quietly under her breath, and then she looked back at her lap, the picture frame left beside her. "I could leave Hibari if I wanted… But… _I don't really want to_."

I-Pin made a funny noise. She hopped off the bed and was now pointing to the window. A chimney trail of smoke was flowing up into the clear sky. Maybe the barbecue was ready now and food was being prepared. Kiriyuu's stomach rumbled. She pushed herself off the bed and looked at I-Pin.

"Well, thanks for cheering me up. You made me realise something -- Actually, you didn't really. But thanks for the, uh… effort, I-Pin. And making me realise that I've probably taken Hibari for granted. So thanks again for helping someone like me out - If… er… if repeatedly kicking someone in the knee until they realise the truth is how you do it."

I-Pin gave a little bow, and they both waddled back down the stairs, and out to the garden.

Then Kiriyuu stopped.

"What the _**hell**_ is he doing here?!" She demanded furiously, pointing to Hibari. He was standing at the gate, dressed in loose jeans and a black shirt. Slightly corporate casual. Ack, who cares?!

Tsuna looked blank at Kiriyuu as she fired them death glares complete with daggers. Yamamoto was pouring out milk for himself but the cup was overflowing. Gokudera was puffing out random shapes of smoke from his cigarette; the first was a triangle, then a square, then a circle. Kyoko and Haru discussed amongst themselves quietly. Ryohei was in the corner, heavily engrossed in reading a boxing magazine that only published annually. Bianchi was watering the plants in the greenhouse so she hadn't heard. It didn't have anything to do with her anyway, or really anyone else for all that mattered. This was just between Hibari and Kiriyuu. I-Pin made another funny noise.

"The baby asked me to come." Hibari replied.

"WHAT?" Kiriyuu shrieked, and she gaped at Reborn. "W-Why'd you - ?"

"To sort things out between you and Hibari." The infant replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "It's better if there are witnesses."

Kiriyuu looked like she was going to die on the spot. Hibari looked indifferent as usual, slightly bemused, but that was all.

Tsuna whimpered somewhat. _Well, at least Reborn's not ruining my life today._

Kiriyuu let out a fake, weak laugh as she stormed up to Hibari. "Witnesses? I've had enough!! I don't need to explain anything to the likes of you."

Everyone watching went 'OOOOH!' and looked at Hibari. He looked pissed off already and it hadn't even been a minute in which they had been interacting.

"You were going to run away again, weren't you?" He demanded, his tone completely unresponsive. That's because Hibari could control his anger – if he _was_ feeling angry or not. Kiriyuu didn't know at all. But she knew he was in a bad mood, that was all. He glimpsed off to the tell-tale suitcases in the corner.

"Yes, I am actually!" She retorted back. "You're the worse roommate ever! So what of it?"

"Then you'd be doing Hibari a favour." Reborn piped up, with a smile, and Kiriyuu gawked at him. She fell out of her position slightly. "Don't forget, Hibari doesn't like to mingle with others."

Kiriyuu stepped back from Hibari's personal space considerably. _He's right. I'd be doing Hibari a favour then by getting out of HIS hair._ Then she shot Hibari a sour look. _As if I'd ever let that happen! Leaving Namimori and letting him have an entire house is what he wanted all along! That's it! I'm going to ruin his life! I'm going to stay in Namimori and ruin his frickin' life!! Kyahaha!_

"Actually, change of plan. I'm staying." Kiriyuu then huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Turns out I don't want to leave Namimori after all."

Hibari glared at her somewhat. "Get your bags. We're going home."

"Fine then, I will!" She marched to the corner and picked up her bags, and the suitcase, then proceeded in dragging the luggage behind her, as she trailed Hibari out of the garden and away from Tsuna's house.

Everyone watched on with confused expressions.

"I thought Kiriyuu liked Hibari-senpai?" Kyoko asked, completely puzzled. "Why do they seem like… well, enemies? That means they're back to square one, right?"

"Kiriyuu still does like Hibari, Kyoko. She just doesn't want to show it anymore. In fact, she probably won't show bother to show it anymore." Reborn replied, while Tsuna scratched at his head.

"I don't get it. Why does she want to stay now?" He enquired.

Reborn sighed. "Didn't you hear a word Kiriyuu said? Didn't you notice anything?"

"Urm…No."

"… Never mind."

They watched the retreating backs of the world's most confusing 'couple' trudge back to the direction of their home.

Of course, this had all been Reborn's plight to get Kiriyuu to stay in Namimori.

**Ten Years into the Future…**

The ground was practically crumbling underneath her feet. She left the control room and kicked away at a dead body that was blocking her way out. Hopefully, everyone on her team had escaped the faculty long beforehand. She passed the First floor corridor, towards the back exit. She hurried forward, until something grabbed her leg, and she looked down.

It was a Vongola; she didn't recognise him as anyone important within the family. His black suit was tattered in bloodstains and one of his legs was even broken; a bloody heap, crumpled and twisted. He moaned out helplessly. A bullet wound poured blood from his side. "I can't… I can't feel my legs…" He moaned out to her in agony, his grip tightening over the leather of her black boots. "H-Help me…"

She watched him.

She hesitated.

Then -

"_No_."

She pulled out her gun and shot him in the head. He let go of her boot, slumped over the floor. Then she kicked his body away from her.

Kiriyuu continued forward without another moment's hesitation. She stumbled out of the destroyed Vongola base, her hand clutched over a bleeding wound on her shoulder, with her crossbow lagging behind her. Out of all the places for a gun to hit her when she was wearing a bulletproof vest, it had to be her shoulder – which the vest barely covered. The entire building was engulfed in flames, and she tightened the gas-mask, still coughing slightly. Her squad had escaped safely, she had been the last to leave since lockdown initiated a few minor setbacks. Besides, she was captain; she had to make sure that everything had been completed successfully. She was okay, just a few scratches on her uniform and maybe some blood, and that bullet wound in her shoulder. Nothing life-threatening. She wobbled back towards the direction of the helicopter, her head spinning.

The sky was gradually darkening; it was roughly evening. The raid had taken over six hours; that was perhaps the longest enemy infiltration she'd ever participated in. Rain began to fall gently down, and blurred her eyeglass. Despite that, she still couldn't see very well, and she stumbled, landing over the soft undergrowth, the smell of exotic Japanese plants and shrubs, mixed with smell of death and musty gas filled her nostrils.

_I don't want to do this anymore. _She pulled off the gas mask, inhaled fresh air drearily, opened an eye and looked up groggily. _I… I don't think I can take it anymore. It's too much._

Something caught her eye. A fat, yellow, blobby thing was perched on the branch of a bush just a few inches away. She squinted her green eyes; it was a bird. A yellow bird. Hibird. Hibari's bird.

It blinked back at her.

She growled, low in her throat, and before Hibird could fly off to safety from her quick, outstretched hand that came at it like a striking snake – her bloodied fingers clamped around the bird's fluffy body and the bird cried out in panic.

"What the hell - ?!" She snarled, her grip tightening over the poor creature. Her eyebrows furrowed, she was going to squeeze the life out of it, waiting for it to pop like a toad when compressed, then –

Kiriyuu's mind throbbed, and she winced; her grip around the bird loosened. She didn't know why Hibird was here. She just recognised this animal as Hibari's, so it was called Hibird. She opened her eyes again, and stared at the poor bird.

_What am I doing? What am I doing here??_

Stunned for a brief moment, Kiriyuu let go of the bird slowly. It flew away immediately, far away and out of her sight. Kiriyuu stared into the sky, silently startled at her own actions. She clutched at her head, rubbing her temples. What was going on? Shaking slightly, Kiriyuu looked at her hand, the hand that had clutched Hibird. Aside from a few downy, golden feathers stuck over her bloody palm, the blood's stench hit Kiriyuu full-frontal in the face. She pushed herself back up using the back of her elbows, and pulled out her gun. This gun. The gun that had ended lives.

_The lives of some unfortunate Vongola._

Breathing shakily, she pointed the gun's nozzle to her forehead, and closed her eyes. She was trembling, her eyes beginning to brim with hot tears.

The voice swarmed into her mind immediately. _**What do you think you're doing?**_

_Go away. I can't take this anymore._

_**Ending your life won't change anything you've done in the past. You know that.**_

She ignored that nagging voice. Her finger almost neared the trigger.

"Commander!"

Startled, Kiriyuu dropped the gun.

"Commander!" Someone was yelling, and Kiriyuu looked up from her spot on the ground, "Comm - heck, whatever, Kiriyuu-sama!" The voice was nearing now.

Kiriyuu dried her eyes quickly with her gloves. Eventually, a woman looking equally dishevelled as Kiriyuu did, entered the clearing and lifted Kiriyuu up to her feet. She had black hair, coffee eyes and was wearing the same uniform Kiriyuu had, too. "Kiriyuu-sama, are you alright? The others made it back alright, the helicopter's not too far from here -- we were getting worried."

"You idiot." Kiriyuu said; she didn't snap or yell at this woman, "If there are more Vongola lurking out here then you'd have blown our positions right away with your inconsistent shouting. You could endanger us all."

"S-Sorry, Kiriyuu-sama… I was just wo - "

"You were _what_?" Kiriyuu barked back at her. "_Worried_? We just came out a mission that could've thoroughly ended our lives and I extremely doubt that it's over, so stop being so presumptuous and careless."

"Yes, Commander." The woman looked at her feet, seemingly quietened down now, and then she suddenly perked up back up at her Commanding Officer, "Commander, y-you're bleeding… "

She pulled herself away. "I'm fine, Ellie. I'm fine. Worry about yourself from now on."

"Commander…" Elia was thoroughly ignored. Her commander seemed to be in deep thought. Elia had never seen her look so perplexed before, and lost, almost confused. She wondered what was wrong. Maybe something had happened…?

"He's here." Kiriyuu began suddenly, her breath shortened tightly. "The Guardian of the Cloud… is here. I'm… I'm going to find him. There's no way he's going to let us leave."

"What?!" Elia shrieked, grabbing Kiriyuu back. "You mean… Hibari Kyouya?"

Kiriyuu didn't say anything.

Elia continued squawking. "A-Are you crazy?! You can't possibly… We need to get out of here – NOW."

Crazy? Kiriyuu didn't seem to know what that word meant anymore. "No." She then growled at her apprentice. "You don't tell me what to do. Now get out of my way. Go back to the helicopter and - "

Elia looked distraught. "No, I won't let you! You're insane if you think you can take him on!"

Kiriyuu was suddenly silent all over again. Elia hoped she had talked some sense into her Commanding Officer. "Anyway… He's way too strong for you! Don't go! You'll be killed! And… and if you're not here, then I… Who's going to be in charge? Me?! I can't – I know I'm second-in-command, but - "

She moved Elia away from her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Okay. Calm down first, and go back to the helicopter, Ellie. I know what I'm doing, and I trust in you, alright? I'm going to hold off the Cloud Guardian… If I don't come back in ten minutes, then go back to the Base without me."

* * *

I'm sorry if things in this story are going a bit too fast. I really don't want an OOC Hibari, so I guess I'm forced to omit major fluff from now on (there wasn't really much, to be honest, just the odd situation now and then, I suppose). I originally had it planned this story to be relatively short, but I guess I couldn't fit it within a chapter limit.

If you didn't get the layout of this chapter; it's basically like this - While things are happening in the future, things are happening in the past too, which is sculpting yet also changing what happens next in the future. So on the whole, there are 2 timelines going on at the moment. Got it?

And yes, EVIL KIRIYUU! Kiriyuu is rather evil in the future. She was going to kill Hibird! What an evil person!! D:


	25. Marionette

**Chapter 25**

_Marionette_

**Continued from the previous chapter…**

Kiriyuu pushed through the thick bushels and low branches, a few leaves catching into her brown hair in progress. With each step forward she took, the more she wanted to turn back and never look that way again. She wasn't entirely sure where she was going, but a gut feeling told her she was heading towards the right direction. She couldn't back down now, but the pain that was spreading throughout her chest was a reason for her to go back, with her breathing was reduced to short gasps and pants, and her seemingly remaining strength slowly being drained away from her body. But she really didn't want to stop and go back now. She was also limping, but that was the least of her worries; the bullet wound hadn't actually stopped bleeding yet, but was slowly seeping into the fabric, creating a darker stain on her Black Spell uniform. Eventually, she broke through a thick nest of crowded shrubs and stumbled into the clearing. A temperate, yellowish-orange hue glowed above, casting a warm light into the clearing.

The small basin of the woodland was empty; that was strange, she assumed that Hibari may be at least here since she was sure that she saw Hibird fly through this precinct. She didn't have to wait for long though, as her hypothesis proved correct as soon as two familiar figures entered the glade from Kiriyuu's left.

It was Hibari, followed by Kusakabe Tetsuya, carrying a briefcase. His eyes almost bulged at the sight of her, while Hibari merely narrowed his eyes. At first, there was a split moment of silence, then -

"You." Hibari began sourly, which surprised her greatly since she hadn't really been expecting to Hibari to speak first. She turned round to face them directly. "Why are you here?" He certainly did not look entirely pleased to see her.

They watched each other for a few moments. She took note of his super-neat, crease-proof black suit and his mop of refined yet rugged dark hair. Careful and orderly as always. His expression was gentle, and passive, yet his eyes were terrifying and foreboding. The most insignificant and irrelevant thoughts to be thinking at this particular confrontation of a lifetime swarmed her mind. One, her hair was otherwise an entire mess with split ends and loose curls, and she wasn't wearing any make-up. She was also covered in blood. She swallowed down slightly; she hadn't exactly seen Hibari in person for some time now. There wasn't much to be described about him; Hibari still looked the same when she left him roughly 10 years ago. His hairstyle had slightly changed, and he was taller. That was all. Nothing much. Kiriyuu thought she had changed dramatically on the other hand.

Hibird flew off from his shoulder and disappeared back into the trees. Somehow, watching Hibari from the opposite end somehow felt like looking into a mirror and watching things re-play over the years that had happened in the past. A desolate feeling suddenly went through her and she began to regret; she really did wonder the way how they would meet if their circumstances had been different. It would be different. Much different. The staring match went prolonged further than she expected, so she tilted her head upwards to the side, looking down at him.

She then crossed her arms carelessly and twisted her head back round, glancing towards the darkening sky. A blur of black smoke from the destroyed Vongola base hung ominously in the atmosphere.

Kusakabe was giving Kiriyuu a very wary look. "Kyou-san, the base. She must've – "

"Go." Hibari commanded smoothly, without glancing over to his subordinate at all. "I will handle this."

"Hai, Kyou-san." Kusakabe shot another warning glare to Kiriyuu and quickly hurried off back towards the direction of the demolished Vongola base.

Surprisingly, Kiriyuu let the assistant rush past her without even batting an eyelid. Her eyes flicked back to Hibari, and she un-crossed her arms. "I wouldn't go there if I were you."

Hibari looked relatively unfazed in return. "I take it you are behind this."

By 'this', he meant the obvious destruction of the Underground base. She didn't think that Hibari would care about the raid; he was six hours late, because of the great care and plan that was considered to annihilate the base inconspicuously from others until now. Maybe he didn't care, although he was part of the Vongola and even a Guardian, but still held little regard for the welfare of allies. Kiriyuu stepped back, looked to the side and sighed, held her arms with a mocking shrug of her shoulders, "What? You mean the raid? Surely you must realise that you and your allies are being attacked by my people."

"And what would that reason be? Or do you not need a reason at all to disturb Namimori with your sudden appearance? You know you are unwelcome here." Hibari replied in a monotone, subdued manner, "I did not expect to see your face again at all."

"I would never have stepped one foot in this _**dump**_ if it weren't for orders." She growled irritably, and she began to circle him, watching him beadily. She took one gentle swing of her legs into a step onto the path at a time leisurely. "So, Hibari, how have you been? I was _worried _about you. Are you _well_?" She asked, in a mocking tone, "Were you doing research just a few miles away from here and realised that something was terribly wrong within this area so you came to check it out?"

He watched her, and she stopped back front of him again. "That is of no concern to you. And I know what you and your people are doing; you will not succeed."

" - In finding the other Guardians? …But I've already found _you_." She then began darkly. "It wouldn't be a hard procedure to hunt down the rest."

Hibari was smirking back at her all of a sudden. "You don't have that capability."

"I'd do anything for the price they put on your head."

"Hmph. And you think you can go against me with that injury?" He was gesturing to her arm.

"So you noticed." She said with a diminutive smirk, and she grabbed the shoulder with the bullet wound, and yanked down. Hard. She bit on her lip as a loud, excruciating 'POP' of her shoulder joint echoed through the lonely woodland. She opened her eyes again and quickly dabbed at her watering eyes. "That was nothing." Though she sounded rather shaky as she tried to hide the growing pain.

Then, Kiriyuu unstrapped the gas mask from her belt, and tossed it to the side. She took out her gun, and threw that to the side as well. She lifted her arm up, and then clenched her fist, as a dark red flame suddenly encased her ring finger.

"Well?" She held her arm out, the crossbow materialised but she removed it off her instead, and tampering around with a few switches and hidden levers, the wings of the crossbow slammed back down against the length of the bow. She cocked the gun, and turned to back to him, "What the hell are you waiting for?"

The voice in her mind came again. _**What are you doing? He won't go easy on you. You're going to lose this fight.**_

She rolled her eyes. _I know that, but it doesn't mean that I won't give it all I got. I need to buy time for the helicopter to leave._

His expression hardly changed, but she knew he understood it as well. However, he let out a short, inaudible sigh, and he protruded out his collapsible tonfas. He immediately went into an offensive stance. "Fine. I highly doubt that you will survive through this."

Hibari hadn't changed at all.

She let out a soft snicker, her lips pulled further back into a widening smirk, and his eyebrows furrowed tightly in response. She left no second to spare because she knew it would be over in an instant if she didn't act now; and she came at him with her crossbow gun. She didn't know what she was doing, but right now, it seemed that this was the only way. Hibari avoided the predictable attack and returned back a full assault of his own, but Kiriyuu dodged somewhat, despite a throbbing pain that stung in her shoulder, with her crossbow raised above her head, she slammed it down as Hibari raised another tonfa to block the attack.

The inevitable clash of steel was the only sound that rang through her ears.

At their uncommon, scarce close proximity within one another, she smirked at him again. "You really missed out on the raid we commenced at dawn. A war is starting and a lot of your Vongola companions will perish; but you don't care about that, do you? Since you hate mingling so much. In fact, I have one more question - Where were you really when it happened?"

"I don't have to answer to you." Hibari's eyes further narrowed as they struggled with their weapons clanging against each other.

"You left them to die, didn't you?" She growled at him, with another broadening sneer. "They were all crushed like bugs when we invaded, the poor things; hadn't been expecting us at all so their defence was thoroughly weaker than usual. I made sure that no-one survived. I will make sure that no-one of the Vongola survives and I will hunt you down. One. By. One."

Hibari was starting to look positively murderous now.

"So what are you going to do now, Hibari Kyouya?" She taunted purposefully, "_Bite me to death_?"

**Ten Years Before…**

The night-time regime in the Hibari House didn't change; with Hibari taking hour long baths, Kiriyuu standing outside the door thumping on it continuously, telling him to hurry up, before heating water in a pot of water and running back up and down the stairs to fill the tub after he was finished (since Hibari didn't integrate a shower) - was really getting tiresome. The night-time weather was different, however. Usually, the nights would be peaceful with owls and cicadas chirping through the hours of darkness. This time, it was another monsoon. Stupid Namimori weather, she thought. It was unpredictable as always. The monsoon started at soon as Hibari and Kiriyuu left Tsuna's house, so they had to make their way home as fast as possible before it could hit town. Once they returned home from Tsuna's house, Hibari dumped Kiriyuu's suitcase and bags on the lawn, marched inside the house without another word. Kiriyuu was left to heave and unpack her stuff back upstairs.

They had dinner, watched TV and the late-night scary movie (which had Kiriyuu hiding behind Hibari), did more Summer Weather reports that were due for school once summer vacation was over and… Nothing else, much, really.

While she tried to get to sleep, flashes of the scary movie kept swimming back into her mind. She remembered other scary movies as well along with the one she had just watched; like The Grudge, when the woman finds the ghost in her bed, with her, under the covers. Kiriyuu began to sweat, and it wasn't because of the heat. She shakily lifted up her covers; nothing there except the rest of her body, obviously. But she still whimpered.

_Ghosts don't exist… ghosts don't exist!_

A lone howl from Kiriyuu's rickety window due to the wind outside forced out a small squeal of fright from the back of her throat.

_What the hell are you waiting for? Get out of there, now!_

She quickly got out of bed and grabbed her pillow, hugging it to herself, and left her room hurriedly. She trekked down the cold, empty hallway, and stopped outside Hibari's door. His light was closed. He was probably asleep. She hesitated to knock on it with her clenched hand in mid-air; what would she say if Hibari opened the door? Heck, what would he say? He'd probably guess that she was too creeped out by the scary movie and accuse her of cowardice. He would probably also beat her up for waking him up at this hour. She bit her lip and sniffled, then brought her fist back down to her side.

She slid down against Hibari's walls and sat, huddling to herself. She stared off to the landing, listening to the torrential downpour outside, eyes adjusting to the bleak darkness. She waited.

And waited.  
And waited.

… And waited.

She slowly felt herself drifting off to sleep and her head plopped over the pillow stuffed in her arms. Then the door opened. Hibari watched her, rolled his eyes, kicked at her roughly with his foot. She landed on her front, waking up instantly.

"E-Eh…? Oh, Hibari…" She mumbled blearily as she stood back up, gathering her pillow in her arms.

"What are you doing?" He demanded tiredly. He didn't like it when people disrupted his sleep.

Kiriyuu's lip wobbled; she couldn't exactly see him in the darkness of the house, but she could make out his silhouette. She fumbled slightly, hopping from one foot to another. "… It was the movie. I-I don't want to be alone."

"It's just a movie."

Now her reason for staying outside Hibari's room seemed really ridiculous. "I know, it's just… Oh, I dunno… I just don't feel right. Something doesn't feel right today."

"There's paracetamol in the cupboard."

"No! I'm not ill. Not that. I really don't know. I just feel… Well, I-I can't get to sleep. I'm… I'm … scared. Kinda."

There was a brief silence. She braced herself for the worst. Instead, Hibari disappeared back into his room. "Get inside." He added, and Kiriyuu looked back up, slightly stunned. He glanced over his shoulder, as she stood limply in the landing. "The spare futon is in the closet."

Still, Kiriyuu did not move. A few minutes passed, and then she finally waddled in, walked to the closet, and pulled out the same, spare, dusty futon she had the last time she had slept in Hibari's room during the ant infestation. She shut the door and laid the futon down, then curled up under the covers. Hibari was back on his bed, his back turned to her.

"Goodnight, Hibari."

No response.

Kiriyuu sighed inwardly and just tried to get to sleep. At least Hibari had allowed her to stay with him this night. She thought that she had bothered Hibari himself. But she did appreciate Hibari letting her stay in his room during her time of…. Uh… fear. That wasn't really all to it, to be honest. She had felt all isolated of a sudden, shut up in her cold, little, box room. She wanted someone's company. She wanted Hibari. She wanted to be with Hibari. She snivelled again and squeezed her eyes further shut.

"Hibari?" Kiriyuu squeaked out meekly.

"… What?"

"I'm sorry for trying to run away. I'll never do it again."

"Whatever. Go to sleep."

She complied anyway, and soon, she did manage to fall asleep without thinking too much about ghosts under her covers or fleshy things kept in sacks with no tongues. When she woke up again, however, she felt exceptionally warm. Rubbing her eyes, she rummaged under the duvet, yawned somewhat, and turned around. Kiriyuu's eyes widened slightly.

Hibari was lying beside her, sound asleep.

**Ten Years into the Future…**

She was on the ground, her hand clamped over the new wound that was gushing out more blood than she could handle. A crossbow was lying a few feet from her, snapped in half. She let her throbbing head rest on the cold, dirty ground, unable to seemingly move anymore. She was thoroughly exhausted. A dark shadow cast over her, stood beside her silently. Her assailant watched her curled form; she wiped away the blood that leaked from her mouth and looked up at him, her outstretched hand over the ground clenching, fingers gathering up mud and stones under the grip. The red flame on her finger was slowly dying out.

"Do it." She muttered out helplessly, as a tiny bead of sweat dripped down her forehead. She closed her eyes. "… Just do it already." She glared up at him through the strands of her splayed, matted hair. "What the hell are you waiting for?"

Hibari had little sympathy for those who had no more will to live. But this time, it was different. Watching what she had become now, in front of him, reduced to a bleeding, almost crippled heap, was really pathetic. He honestly had thought better of her in some parts. But he was wrong. He was wrong about her. He had always been wrong about her. She really did disappoint him in so many ways that she didn't realise it herself. She hadn't learnt her lesson after all those years. That was because she had always been so ignorant, selfish and inconsiderate towards others. Like now. She was still selfish.

And that was why what she wanted from him now; he would not bestow it upon her so courteously.

"No," He replied apathetically, stowing away his tonfas as his flame from the ring withered away, "You are a selfish person. Killing you will be what you've wanted all along."

Kiriyuu's eyes widened, and she whipped her head back up at him in astonishment. Hibari was walking away, without looking back. Kiriyuu had lost the fight, but now she felt exceptionally worse. She already thought she had lost many she could've had, but now she felt that she had lost _everything_; her self-respect, her dignity, her status, her sense of wellbeing, her identity - everything. Kiriyuu had now given up altogether.

Suddenly, Kusakabe stumbled back into the clearing. He gave one look to Kiriyuu on the ground, surprised. Kusakabe turned back to Hibari. "I checked thoroughly. There are a total of four helicopters just a few miles from here but they're all deserted; they might come back – "

Kiriyuu paused for a moment. _Elia didn't leave…? But…__We only came in two helicopters. Who does the other two belong to?_

Kusakabe continued. " - The Millefiore have completely destroyed the base, Kyou-san. They spared no-one."

Hibari and Kusakabe then averted their eyes to Kiriyuu on the floor.

"Hahaha…ahaha…They're dead…Everyone's…dead." She let out a mirthless, weak laugh at them from the back of her throat, glancing back up at Hibari again, still laughing. "I know. I made sure."

There were a few moments of silence.

But Hibari turned back round, walked away from them. Kusakabe, thoroughly confused and stunned, gave one more fleeting, momentary look to Kiriyuu, and back to Hibari, then hastily followed suit.

Kiriyuu stared at him with equal surprise as Kusakabe did. "What do you think you're doing? Get back here, you coward!" She yelled at Hibari's back weakly, still coughing up more blood. She tried to sit up, it didn't work, and she collapsed back over the ground. "Why won't you kill me? I ruined your life and you ruined mine! Get back here!"

He was walking away further; she honestly didn't know if he had heard her or not. He probably hadn't.

"Kill me and everything happening between us would be over. Whatever it is that you still have, I know that you don't want it anymore. That's what you've wanted all along, isn't it?" She cried out feebly, a little desperately. She couldn't believe it. He still didn't turn back round. "…Isn't it…?"

Hibari, along with Kusakabe, disappeared into the woods. Never to be seen for some time again, probably. And if they did see each other again; it'd just be like what happened today.

The colour drained away from Kiriyuu's face as she watched on, completely confounded yet devastated at the same time. "No, Hibari. D-Don't go…" She then stammered to an extent, and she placed her head back on the ground, squeezing her eyes shut as the corners of her eyes began to well up. "Don't-Don't leave me again… Please don't."

She lay there for several minutes. He wasn't coming back. She dropped her hand. She was starting to feel sleepy, as her eyes dropped. Kiriyuu sniffled slightly, as she lay on the ground. She moved to lie on her back, watching the darkening sky, the stars coming out, and the moon hanging above her, shining on the clearing. Her vision smudged; the full moon split into two moons, then three, and four. She coughed again, as her eyes began to close. She lifted her hand up away from her new, perhaps life-threatening wound and gazed, wriggling her fingers around slightly; it was completely amassed in blood.

She put the hand over her face, covering herself in her own blood. "I hate you so much… I hate you for not stopping me. I hate you for not telling me that I made the wrong decision… I hate you for turning me against you." She murmured out, dazedly.

But then she gritted her teeth. "… I hate you because you weren't there for me. And you still aren't." She then growled out, her tone gaining foundation again as her anger, hatred and all the resentment she held for him began to grow once more. "I hate you because I still have feelings for you and I still can't get rid of them. Why can't you see that?!" Then she turned back round, facing the same way he had left.

"YOU TURNED ME INTO WHAT I AM NOW, HIBARI KYOUYA, AND THAT IS WHY I WILL ALWAYS HATE YOU!!"

She dropped back down over the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut. Her body loosened and she lay there, exhausted. Kiriyuu didn't know how long she had been lying in her little spot; but it felt like an eternity, and she had perhaps fallen asleep, if it wasn't for the recurring voice in her mind that just had to wake her up before she could slip away into the darkness. Hibari hadn't come back; she didn't think he would anyway. She groaned somewhat, as the voice rang through her mind thoroughly.

_**Go back to the helicopter. I'm sure your poor, little apprentice is worried sick about her precious mentor. **_This time, the voice's tone sounded sardonic and scornful, mocking her in a way.

She fumbled slightly, as she complied - she tried to sit up, but her whole body ached, and she flopped back down over the dirt, exhausted. Hibari had perhaps broken every bone in her body. She remained lying on the ground, and she reached a hand up to her face, rubbing at the scar on her cheek, watching the night sky."… Urgh… W-What happened…?"

_**You fell unconscious for at least twenty minutes.**_

"And you're still here?" She said out loud. "…What about Chrome?"

_**I'm surprised that you're displaying concern about a member of the Vongola. **_

"I'm not concerned. I just don't understand why you are still with me."

_**Kufufu…. You are still useful to me. For now.**_

She could almost hear his lips forming upwards into a small smirk, and let out a frail, bemused laugh. "… Whatever. You know, I really don't remember how and why I went against the Vongola; it feels like such a long time ago."

_**How can you not remember? **_She knew that he was smirking at her again.

"I just can't. It's like a blur…" She tried to recall again with a squeeze of her eyes as she tried to concentrate; but nothing came up. At all. She had been with the Millefiore all the time; she had been mentoring Elia all her time there. She was a Commander. She served under Uni-sama. Like the most of the pre-Giglio Nero members, she resented Byakuran-sama despite the loyalty she needed to display. But…

_**But what?**_

She then mumbled out. "… But… I was… gone… somewhere. Missing. It was dark. Then… you started talking to me. You told me that I hated the Vongola. I remember Hibari and when I lived with him, but… that's all I remember… and you told me he hated me, so I should hate him too."

_**Quite right.**_

"… And you're always making me think of the Vongola. Just leave me alone from now on." She spoke, inhaling sharply with each breath she took. She huddled up further into a ball and closed her eyes shut. She let out a tormented sigh and flopped back again as soon as she tried to get up. "What's going on…? I-I can't get up, Mukuro. I'm… I'm cold, I'm tired, and sleepy. I can't move… It hurts, and I'm bleeding so much… it won't stop."

_**You're dying. Don't you know…that this is how it feels like to go through death?**_

"…I'm…dying…?"

_**Hibari injured you thoroughly and you didn't get help immediately afterwards, that's why you're stuck like this now.**_

Kiriyuu tried to move again; she could hear someone's thundering footsteps gaining towards her, and she glanced up and over as Elia's silhouette eventually burst through the trees. Her breathing was laboured, and she had red, puffy cheeks, looking extremely tousled and anxious as usual. Didn't the girl ever learn to calm down in her life? She sighed gently; the sound of Mukuro's voice had left for the time being. Surprisingly, Kiriyuu felt alone all over again.

"Kiriyuu!!" She screamed, and she ran over. In response, Kiriyuu winced at the alarming volume of her voice as Elia practically fell down to her knees beside her.

She looked away. "…. Don't touch me." Elia tried to turn her over, which ended up with Kiriyuu numb all over with pain. "Ow. It hurts."

Elia immediately pulled her hands away. "I'm s-sorry… Kiriyuu-sama, what happened? You're still bleeding – what's that wound?"

"It's not serious. I'm… I'm okay."

There was a slight hesitation. Elia bit her lip. "You were gone for about forty five minutes, the rest of us split up to look for you…"

Kiriyuu shivered in response, "Ellie… I'm cold."

Elia quickly removed her blazer, leaving her shirt on and quickly draped it over Kiriyuu. "You're hurt. Hibari Kyouya did this to you, didn't he?!" She wondered what could've happened between Hibari Kyouya and her Commander – if she did find him, that is. She took note of her broken crossbow and the fact that Kiriyuu was looking extremely pale, and enervated. Elia spoke up again. "Kiriyuu-sama, I-I'll go and get help – " And she moved back up to leave.

Immediately, Kiriyuu intervened before she could leave. "No." She put a hand on Elia's arm. "Ellie, just stay here with me, please. I…I don't want to be alone."

She could tell there was something wrong with Kiriyuu, and she smiled reassuringly at her Commander. "It'll be fine. I'll come back soon."

Kiriyuu didn't say anything. Elia stood back up and pulled out her radio, tampering around with the antennae – but all that came was non-stop, continuous feedback. The sound of rustling footsteps could be heard in the distance. Elia stopped, and looked around cautiously.

"You hear that? I think they've found us."

"… Go on then. Go check it out."

She glanced towards the direction the footsteps were heard. "O-Okay, I-I'll be right back, Kiriyuu. Stay there and don't move."

"Hurry up, Ellie."

Without another word, Elia complied with her Commander and promptly rushed over. She delved further into the woods as quickly as she could, trying to find the source; she knew that Commander was a rather impatient person, but to her dismay, and confusion, there was no-one there.

………….

Elia must've returned with the back-up, Kiriyuu thought, as more footsteps could be heard. Mukuro's voice had completely vanished for the time being. They gained towards her, and she watched them crowd round, though she was slightly puzzled at their appearance for plenty of reasons; Elia was not with them, and they were all wearing the White Spell uniforms. They were not her squad. She took note of the flower emblem sewn on their uniforms; she recognised it as Byakuran's 'special' team. Why were they here? Uh-oh. Kiriyuu had a feeling that this would happen one day. She remembered Kusakabe mentioning about two extra helicopters along with her squadron's helicopters. It must've been them.

One spoke slowly first, and she looked up. "… Tell us where the Guardian of the Mist is."

She froze for a split second.

"We know you have contact with him. Looks like you aren't so careful covering up your tracks as you thought, _traitor_."

Kiriyuu was now shaking again, as the breath hitched in her throat. But then she slid her eyes to the side, and back to the group. She closed her eyes dryly and let out a small sigh, brushing a bloody hand through her hair. Then she turned back to them expectantly. "…First of all, I don't know where he is. Secondly, he is the one who talks to me. Third, I may be against the Vongola, but that doesn't mean I'm one of you, let along being entitled a traitor within your coalition."

A cold, rough hand was clamped around her neck tightly and she struggled to breathe instantly, but she made no attempt to pry the hand off her windpipe. It was so dark she could not see exactly who he was, but she knew his lips were moving. He was talking to her. He was yelling at her. He was threatening her. _"Tell us where Rokudo Mukuro is." _She read his lips. He was spewing more threatening warnings or else something would happen to her safety and well-being. Something about a hanging cage, then a head crusher... more ominous subjects about Millefiore torture devices.

She frowned at him. "Screw you, you Millefiore bastards."

More abuse was being thrown at her. She still couldn't hear. She wasn't listening; Mukuro had returned; he hadn't left her at all. _**I'm going to shut you down. I can't allow you free will anymore, Kiriyuu. I suppose you could call it that we are... simply parting ways. The end of our little conversations from now on. **_

There was no hint of sadness in Mukuro's voice despite the words he spoke. It was just as sly and smooth as ever, even though his tone still possessed that deep lilt that seemed so frightening to Kiriyuu. _No, you can't do that. You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, and I'm just mad, crazy, psychotic. _

_**You think you're insane?**_

_I must be. I hope I am. I'm probably in a straitjacket in some mental asylum hung up by hooks in a padded room with a blindfold over my eyes. And all this time I've been hallucinating your voice talking to me in my mind ever since and I was the one who gave the voice a name - 'Mukuro' - but that doesn't mean anything, and I've been in control all this time._ _You're not real, and you can't do anything to me of any sort._

_**Oh, really? Will this convince you that everything, including me, is very much real and in control over you?**_

She felt the innards of her mind constrict tightly all of a sudden and she winced. _Ow, okay, I felt that… and that's never happened before._

The closing pain died down gradually, and his voice could be heard again_**. It's time, Kiriyuu. I don't want you to submit yourself to insanity. It has to be now, or it'll be too late.**_

_So you're going to shut me down? I'm not a machine. I'm human. I'm bleeding, I'm half-dead; I practically have a hole in my chest thanks to Hibari... And you never held that 'power' over me. I'm not like Chrome. I don't need your illusions to survive. And... you don't need me to survive... _Kiriyuu finally understood one thing.

_**No, Kiriyuu, you don't. The situation between you and Chrome is entirely different. I don't need you to survive, but it is not the same for you unfortunately. I have an indirect control over your entire system. Communicating to you through your mind is just the same as my power to possess one's body, but on an extreme level for your case.**_

Kiriyuu slumped _… Okay. I-I get it…and why are you doing this?_

_**Because. I don't trust you anymore.**_

She paused again. Mukuro was serious. She couldn't detect a lift of his lips or anything. _You never trusted anyone anyway. Fine. Go ahead. Just get it over with. I'm a toy, right? A marionette. I'm not a valued acquaintance of yours unlike the others. You always called people 'toys'. I guess I was one of them all along. And once one of them is broken, you throw it away like garbage. Fine. I'm ready. I want to die._

_**I'm glad you see it my way.**_

Even though she still didn't completely comprehend what Mukuro had just explained to her - such as the fact that she did not realise that Mukuro was 'possessing' her in some way. She blinked dully as her vision blurred, defeated once more. Her captor was temporary halted when Kiriyuu coughed out a larger volume of blood all down his fist. She flinched, as blood also began to leak out from her nose, and she looked back at him with a small, triumphant grin as she prepared herself.

"Well? Are you going to tell us or not? What the hell are you waiting for?"

"This." She merely replied. And then her head dropped, her body went completely limp under his grip.

She was gone.

…………...

Elia returned back to the clearing. She actually got lost after she took off running towards the direction where back-up was originally supposed to be, and had to spend at least ten more minutes finding her way back carefully. She was glad to see that Kiriyuu was still lying there on her lonesome, and she plopped back down beside her, slightly weary from her unsuccessful endeavour. She sighed, looked up at the starry sky and smothered at her sweaty forehead.

"Kiriyuu, there was no-one there, we should go back ourselves – " Elia stopped, blinked, then abruptly scrambled back onto her knees beside Kiriyuu. Something was definitely wrong. Something was wrong with Kiriyuu; her eyes were closed, as if she was sleeping, but that was not it. Her mouth was closed, nevertheless there was no gentle heave and lull of her chest as one would have if they were breathing. There was blood on her chin, and a trail streaming down her nose, too. That wasn't there before. Oh no, had she had some kind of fierce, catalytic convulsion just after she had left? She didn't check how stable Kiriyuu's condition was.

"Kiriyuu, what's wrong?" She croaked out unsteadily, her voice barely above a whisper. "Kiriyuu, wake up."

There was no response.

A long pause followed, and Elia sat on her spot with a vacant expression for a few seconds, then let out a quivering hand, as she began to fear the worse, and shook her limp form gently.

"…Kiriyuu…?"

* * *

I may have officially ruined this story, so, uh, before you complain/flame/review or whatnot, please kindly read this:

- There was just a tiny bit of TYB to show some contrast of what things were like in the past compared to the future (but there wasn't much point to it, really)

- Okay, I admit it. Having Mukuro show up was probably a cliché/predictable/lame/LMFAO thing. Well, this is an **AU** story, so I tried to make it interesting (yeah, by complicating things).

- I had to insert some fluff at some point.

- TYL Kiriyuu probably was a bit insane. I hope that answers one question :O


	26. How to Speak Spanner

**Chapter 26**

_How to Speak Spanner:  
__Bluff your way into Mechanics in Less than 10 Minutes_

Spanner learned a valuable lesson today; never get involved with the complicated structure of the female mind.

The day when he'd meet the strangest, complex and difficult of Millefiore women of all started off like any other; he'd woken up without the use of an alarm clock (very reliable biological clock, indeed), scratched his head, looked around and yawned. He'd camped out in his workstation again, despite the fact that it was really cold in the office because it was convenient for him. It really was convenient for him. He could brush his teeth and work at the same time. He could eat breakfast and work at the same time. He could do anything and work at the same time. Spanner rolled up his futon and stored it away, by that time, it was roughly 8am. He had no working hour shift, he chose what hours he worked, and no, he wasn't entirely self-employed, either.

Spanner was a relatively lonely man. He spent his days alone most of the time, cooped up within his workstation; fixing, repairing, building, drilling, re-attaching, welding, grinding… the usual. Not that he really minded. Work was always a one-man job and he was devoted to his skills and efforts. His entire gallery was proudly filled head to toe with heavy robotic artillery and numerous miscellaneous parts of other Millefiore machinery he had constructed. Heck, he could be hoarding a robot from _Transformers_ if he wanted to. Recently, he had been working on a new edition of a Mosca robot as they wanted, but so far, work had been pretty slow despite his 100 percent concentration and endeavours. He was a dedicated mechanic, praised for his many creations, vigil and labour, but somehow, something didn't seem so fulfilling about his role anymore lately.

"I have a favour to ask of you, Mr Spanner."

Spanner didn't know who these two women who stood before him were. He didn't even hear his door open. It should've been locked. And the doorbell would've sounded. But they were here, and looking for him. He didn't have many visitors before, and didn't know why he had visitors now. He also never had visitors who were female. The Cervello often came, but he didn't talk much to them, because then they'd be with Irie-sama, and he'd just talk to him instead. Spanner did know some females. But they weren't close. Usually, he'd have heard of other female Millefiore members. He hadn't spoken to a female for some time, either. The woman who spoke first, he had no distinct idea who she was – but he recognised the other woman in the wheelchair was, since she was the talk of the Millefiore news lately.

"And you are?"

"Oh, sorry. Where are my manners? Er-hem. Hi, I'm Elia." She seemed friendly enough, complete with a wide smile. She was going to protrude a hand out - but then she looked at his dirty leather gloves, and swallowed, hid her hands behind her back again and cleared her throat. His gloves were too gross with oil and shrapnel that she wouldn't shake his hand if he did offer (which he hadn't).

"And that's… Kiriyuu." Spanner recounted on his Millefiore Gossip knowledge. Kiriyuu… You know, Kiriyuu - _The _Kiriyuu; the one who was taken back from a mission several days ago with heavy internal bleeding, presumably brain dead but her heart was still beating and was practically operated on whilst being carried in the helicopter _AND_ when they returned back to the base? Yeah, that Kiriyuu. He thought she should've died by now.

"No," A small, wry smile crossed the young raven-haired woman's face who had accompanied her, "This is her shell. She's already gone."

Spanner raised an eyebrow.

Elia cleared her throat. "Okay, I suppose you don't understand what I am talking about since people say you're a bit of a strange, nocturnal person; you know - sleeps during the day, lives under a rock, never been seen in broad daylight, most likely to get married to a Hammer 20 years later, total workaholic that you perhaps may and will never ever have, any friends whatsoever and die a very, very lonely death in your office and be discovered ten days later half-eaten by pigeons who live just outside your windowsill… "

Weird woman, Spanner thought. Not only weird, but she was prejudiced. Prejudiced about him. That was also perhaps the longest, pointless, rambling sentence he'd ever heard someone say without stopping to intake oxygen.

She wasn't finished just yet, either. "So! I will try and make it easy for you to understand, in your mechanic language, or so to say: 'Spanner Speak', what I am about to say. Hm….Lemme think of a good example on how to put it out for you…"

He waited.

"Okay. I got it. Let's talk _Power Rangers_ – you know, that old fancy show with all them crazy robots that join onto other robots that battle monsters and those cheesy, zany special effects – you should understand the physics because you work with robots - "

He rolled his eyes.

She snapped her fingers, as if a light-bulb above her head had switched on. It had, actually. "Think about it this way. There is a Power Rangers robot. When you take away the Power Ranger, it is just a robot. It can't move, can't do anything, because no-one is controlling it from inside. A thing put on cabinets for show, gathering up dust, etc, etc. Kiriyuu used to be one of those Power Rangers robot, like the rest of us, but her Power Ranger was forcibly wrangled out. So now she's just a robot. It is… Obsolete."

Spanner decided that half the females in the Millefiore were a bit loopy. He actually hadn't really listened to what she had to say properly. He was watching her lips, though. The only sound that seemed to come out of her mouth was a weird 'eeeeeee' ringing sound in his ears.

Once she'd stopped, he realised that she was now looking at him expectantly for his response.

He looked to the side and back. Okay, so, um, she said something about Power Rangers and a robot with no Power Ranger. "….So…. she's…. lost her…. battery."

Elia gleamed. "YES! That's right! I'm so glad you understand!" She _had _heard some rumours about this guy; he'd never spoken to a woman his entire life! God…

He sighed again. He had a headache.

On the other hand, Kiriyuu had just woken up from a sleep and was now looking dazedly at the only two people in this unrecognizable room. A huge chunk of her memory was gone, and she couldn't remember what she had for breakfast, yet she'd had a dream.

She'd had a dream about when she was younger. She was back at the Academy. Naito Longchamp had just been introduced to the class an exchange student for a short period. This was also the time Kiriyuu's appearance was…. (See Chapter 15 for reference). She'd dreamt about another guy in her class; he was popular, good-looking, everyone liked him… a typical jerk though. One day, he'd asked her out on a date. Kiriyuu accepted. She couldn't remember why, but she did. And people were laughing. They were laughing at her. They weren't laughing at him. He was laughing at her. It wasn't a pity date, it was something else… it was worse… and Kiriyuu felt ridiculed, scorned, upset, and she was the laughing stock of the class until Longchamp came….

The dream didn't last very long. Kiriyuu couldn't remember much anymore, because then she was thinking about breakfast. And then when she was wanting to think about her dream, she'd ended up forgetting what she had for breakfast. Oh, woe is Kiriyuu.

Elia, just above her, cleared her throat again. "Anyway, I have two reasons why I have brought her before you today. Number one, I want you to build her coffin."

Spanner was somewhat astounded at her direct, straightforward manner.

"Number two, I'm originally supposed to be looking after Kiriyuu for now at the Clinic but I have an urgent meeting with our Supervisor. It's about a job promotion, you see." Elia replied, giving a sideways glance to her Commander in the wheelchair. "Could you also look after her for… three hours or so, while I'm gone?"

Spanner lifted his goggles up from his eyes, resting them on top of his forehead. He chewed on his straw that he got from his ordered fizzy drink – you know, an extra sugar to keep the energy up aside from his lollipop (usually, it'd also be green tea but he'd run out of that for now) – and glanced at the woman perched in the wheelchair.

Her head was completely bandaged. Her hair was actually shaven off. She looked like she had seen better days; pale face, dull green eyes, dazed expression on her face … something about her stature had him worry somewhat. She wasn't healthy; he could tell. Her arms were bound together to her sides by a straitjacket, her exposed hands were tied down, handcuffed tightly, and an elastic strap of fabric strapped her back against the chair. Dare he say it, she was probably better off presumed brain dead. He flickered his eyes to the one who had wheeled her in before him into his territory.

He spoke, "Number one, I don't specialise in manufacturing coffins. Number two, shouldn't she be at the hospital ward?"

"She was. She's been cooped up for at least two weeks, so I thought I should take her out for a walk and breathe some fresh air. They couldn't find anything wrong with her to provoke this reaction out of her."

"… There's nothing wrong her?"

"Yes. Exactly. Now you know why I said this was her shell? She's all hollowed out. The way how I see it, I think she was gone the minute she met up with that wretched Cloud Guardian. When I found her, she'd lost so much blood and they said she was brain dead at the scene for at least ten minutes before recovering eventually. Strange, eh? The world works its magic in many ways…"

He continued listening. No 'eeeeee' sound from her mouth this time.

"It also seems more psychological than physiological, to be honest. They call it depression. It's so severe that they practically shoved ten thousand anti-depressants down her throat but nothing's working. She doesn't remember what she did yesterday, the Vongola, us, herself, even. I don't think she even remembers who I am."

"Where are her relatives, her friends?"

"… About that…" The soon-to-be-Commander glimpsed to the side awkwardly, and back. "Our team have a lot of work to do…. I do believe that we're going to start on the Vongola's allies now. We have located the Tomaso family next and their base…. I have agreed to take over Kiriyuu's job while she recovers, so I wouldn't believe I have much time to look after her. But… I don't think Kiriyuu ever will fully recover."

Elia looked to the side again.

"… Besides, Kiriyuu is now labelled a traitor; got ties with the Vongola, apparently..."

"Oh, really?" Though Spanner did not look interested at all. Instead, he picked up his luncheon sandwich, biting into it. "Why is she still alive then?"

"They couldn't find anything on her and the connection with the Vongola so she's still a cherished Millefiore member. But with depression."

"… Right. Does she take any medication I should know of?"

"She just took her regular dosage. It should last her six hours roughly."

"Does she need 24 hour care?"

"Pffft. Silly Mr Spanner. _**No**_, it's just depression, sheesh. She's not lost a leg or something."

He irked. He didn't mean it that way…

Elia looked down at the ground. "Anyway… Could you let her stay in your examining room? You got lots of space there." She pointed to a door that was ajar behind Spanner; a silver plate on the door said 'Examining Room'.

"I didn't say I was going to let her stay – "

Kiriyuu made a noise.

Elia turned from Kiriyuu and glared at Spanner. "She heard you. And you hurt her feelings. Shame on you, Mr Spanner."

He sighed.

"So, what do you say, Mr Spanner? Will you let her stay with you for the moment? Besides, people say that you're pretty much alone these days, and she's all strapped up, in a straitjacket and stuff - what harm can she do? Oh, and she's kinda… broken. Maybe you could fix her, since you are the engineer." Elia let out a laugh.

"I'm not a babysitter – "

He was thoroughly ignored. She had bent down to Kiriyuu's level, held her handcuffed hands gently and smiled. "Don't worry… Mr Spanner will take care of you now. Make sure you listen to what he says. I'll be back soon."

He watched her stonily as she got back up, began to leave the room. Good riddance, he thought. He then thought about that joke she'd just cracked. It was rather insensitive. "That wasn't funny." He called after her, but all he got was a wave of dismissal. "And I'm a mechanic, it's easier to say than 'robotics engineer'. Don't I get a say in this?"

"Hmmm, no. Nope, you don't. Take good care of her, please." She winked, blew him a kiss as she made her way to the main door. But then she turned back, poked her head back in the doorway. "If you do anything to her, then mark my words, I will – please take note of the emphasis on the word 'will', ahem – I _**WILL**_come back, with a meat cleaver, slice your neck open, rip out your windpipe _and_make it into a pretty little decorative necklace." She hissed at him threateningly. "You got that, punk?"

He blinked, then nodded slowly.

"Okay, thank you! Goodbye now!" Sweet smile. Elia quickly hurried out, the door slamming shut. There was an odd silence in the air.

Spanner and Kiriyuu watched the door, thinking that she may come back for seconds. She never did.

_Stupid apprentice._

Spanner let out a short sigh as soon as the attendant vanished from his sight and he turned back to her. She hadn't budged at all in her seat. Taking care of a person in a wheelchair wasn't exactly what he had in mind as company. A cat probably would've been a better choice... With another sigh, he walked back to her, stopped, and knelt down to her level. He put a hand to his chin; inspected her thoroughly. Her face held no concern about her well-being but he could see it in her eyes. Something traumatising, no doubt. She didn't even blink, let alone look at him as he snapped his fingers in her face. She then blinked. He blinked.

Perhaps that had gotten her undivided attention.

"Name's Spanner." He held up his trusty spanner.

She yawned.

Oh great, another difficult woman with some kind of attitude for him to put up with.

"Are you thirsty?" He held up his juice.

She turned away.

"Are you hungry?" He held up his sandwich.

She scoffed.

Spanner looked moderately surprised. "Oh, my sandwich isn't good enough for you? Yeah, it is what mechanics eat, and not what you Commanders eat back at the base, right?"

She looked at him with half-lidded eyes. Brain dead his ass, he thought. She was responding to him pretty fine, actually.

"Lollipop?" He then asked, gesturing to the tub of multicoloured Chupa-Chops on sticks in the corner.

She rolled her eyes.

"Hmm, you're not talking." He got back up and smoothed down the creases of his jumpsuit, before walking away from her, rummaging through his cupboards for a measuring tape. "Well, silence is golden."

She still wasn't talking, but she was watching him tentatively, perhaps curiously, too.

"I suppose building a coffin is the same as building a robot." Spanner murmured to himself as he returned back to her. He knelt down beside her again. Not an exhale of breath from the girl. He realised that the elastic strap over was probably cutting off most of her breathing space, so he undid it, letting the strap snap back within the holster. She didn't move, which surprised him also. No attempt to escape.

"Hrm?"

He noticed something funny about her left eye. Even though both her irises were green… the left was rather empty; he could not see his reflection within the pupil. He waved a hand in front of that left eye. Her right eye turned into a slit in response, but the left…. Nothing. She was half-blind. With that, she frowned at him. She liked her personal space NOT being breached.

Spanner lay down a spare futon on the ground first, cleared the rest of the space of clutter and tidbits, then turned to Kiriyuu; he lifted her out of the wheelchair. Surprisingly, she was as light as a feather, and she slumped against him as he carried her down to the futon. He left her lying on her back, blinking slowly at the tall ceiling, while he measured out her height. It felt strange, measuring a still-alive person for their coffin. Next, he had to measure her weight. He knew he had scales somewhere... Once he'd found the measuring scales from under an old, rusty cabinet, he blew the dust off the surface, and he propped her to sit upright, trying to get her back on her feet.

"Up you go." He said, but she just flopped back down over the futon, like a ragdoll. He pulled her upwards again, and the same thing happened; she just splat across the futon like a pancake. He sighed, brought the scales over, and a scaffold used to act as a stand for robots. He adjusted the height level, then brought the scaffolding over to her as well and propped her against it. He made sure it was adjusted correctly; it was like a clothes rack she was leaning against, it supported her from under the arms, and he'd let her feet touch the scales.

He took note of her weight; unfortunately, she was deemed underweight even though he made sure that she wasn't relying too much on the scales to hold her up. Once the measuring and weighing was over, he'd let her slump against the wheelchair again, and wheeled her off to towards the small window in the corner, where she could perhaps watch pretty rainbows and clouds the shape of unicorns and cupcakes for the time being, before stowing away the measurements safely with the rest of his blueprints.

Sooner or later, he heard something shifting around.

He turned to her. She had gotten out of her wheelchair, and was about to – "Hey. You can't climb out of the window." He rushed over, after abandoning his tools and pulled her away from the open window in which she had already half-clambered out of. Despite his relaxed, easy-going, Japanese-loving nature, or his relaxed, easy-going, Japanese-loving way of life and relaxed, easy-going, Japanese-loving methods of working, this wasn't really what he had in mind. He pulled her back inside; she made no attempt to escape, and he plopped her back down on the wheelchair.

He'd just realised that she'd also moved on her own accord. And he spent so much trouble trying to weigh her, too.

"No more window for you." He wheeled her to the corner where his water dispenser was, letting her stare at bubbles forming in the water tank every so often.

No more was he three steps away when he heard the sound of water gushing; he turned back round again and realised that Kiriyuu was pressing onto the button for water – but there was no cup so the water was flowing freely onto the floor. "Cut that out right now – " He grabbed the handles of her wheelchair and began to wheel her away from the dispenser, too. "You're quite the troublemaker, aren't you?"

Kiriyuu just slumped against the wheelchair once more, looking pissed off. At least he knew that she wasn't much of a block of wood as he previously thought. "… Spanner." She began attentively.

He actually froze for a short moment. "You… talked."

"Yes, I may be depressed, and my memory may be poorer than it normally would be, but that doesn't mean I am not capable of having civilised conversations with the likes of you." She spoke to him half-heartedly. She then wriggled in her chair, looked down at herself, and glanced up at him. "I'm in a straitjacket. Why the hell am I in a straitjacket?"

Oh, she had finally noticed. "… You really don't remember?"

She gave him a dirty look; her face flushed, embarrassed. "…. No." She begrudgingly grumbled out. "Now help me get this wretched thing off me, please. It's blocking my air-duct. Don't just stand there gawking and looking silly. Hurry up while we're still young."

Was it just him, but… were all Millefiore females somewhat dominating and threatening in some way? He fastened it off her anyway, and put it to the side, watched her stretch her arms up and down. "…. Do you need something else?" He asked.

She sat back. "Actually, there isn't really much I could request more, I am already a burden; they put me in a straitjacket, I have no hair, I'm partially blind, I feel as though I have lost half my brain, I'm confined to a wheelchair even though I'm sure my legs work perfectly fine, they force-feed me apple crumble in a tube attached to my arm because I refuse to eat... The least you can do is acknowledge my presence and treat me like a human." She replied in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.…. Hey, she'd finally remembered what she'd had for breakfast!

He scratched his head, slightly confused at her behaviour.

Earlier on, Elia had said that Kiriyuu's memory was pretty screwed up, but she seemed…. Fine, in some ways… and she really was having a civilised conversation with him. He'd heard other stories about Ottuso Kiriyuu; she was labelled as a cold, distant person who yelled at people too much, particularly at her apprentice. Her team was hard-disciplined and focused. She wasn't supposed to be nice, but then again, no-one in this family were entirely friendly, either. Elia was probably an exception and wouldn't last long in his dog-eat-dog family. Byakuran was also…. Nice? He wasn't so sure; he just heard from others that he held a very pleasant attitude most of the times towards his subordinates. Well, he could be an exception because he was intelligent and sly. Spanner didn't know about himself.

The corners of his lips curled upwards into a diminutive smile. "… I'd serve you tea, Commander, but I'm all out, sorry."

She yawned again. "Not a problem. I suppose you should continue constructing my coffin. I won't bother you anymore. Hmm, now how does this wheelchair work…?" Her handcuffed hands strained towards the lever that blocked the wheel.

"I'll get that. Where do you want to go?"

"Just over there, so I can watch you work, thank you. I have never been inside a mechanic's workstation after all. There is a first to everything, you know."

Spanner thought to himself. "The mechanisms of the human mind are so fragile." He shrugged inwardly, after he eventually pulled her up just beside him on the robot that he had left for later to work on; it wasn't exactly the safest place to deposit someone, but it was clear of dangerous inanimate objects for the time being. He carefully laid down his tools away from her, and continued working again. Maybe it was a good idea to put her back in the straitjacket.

"Would you like to hear what I personally think about the Millefiore famiglia, Spanner-san?"

Usually, he'd prefer silence when he was working, but Kiriyuu talking felt like a rare opportunity. He flicked a glance to her behind his welding mask as he revved the welder up.

Kiriyuu continued on regardless, and cleared her throat. "Byakuran's a big gherkin. He's a clever one, but a gherkin."

"Everyone has their personal opinions, I suppose." He wasn't quite sure he knew what a gherkin was…

He then clamped safety headphones over his ears as he inserted the Bosch Hammer drill and the sounds of metal grinding and whirring could be heard within the walls of the establishment as he began to cut up some metal for the lining of the coffin. He was pretty stunned at how much conversation he could get from her. Well, he did have an ability to strike conversation with random and total strangers. It was a good thing he wasn't mixed in with all them Commanders and other supervisors, otherwise he'd be subjected to this kind of back-stabbing, behind-your-back, obscene, hurtful whispers. What was this called? Organisation society and culture, of course. Hmm, maybe it was actually Millefiore culture.

When he switched off the drill to reach for the welder, Kiriyuu had spotted something, wheeled herself over. She picked it up. Her eyes widened momentarily.

Spanner was still working. There was a long silence since that remark about Iris. "Is that all?" There was still no response. "If you want to hear one of my personal opinions, I think some of the female members of the Millefiore are sluts." That's how honest – and rude - he could get.

There was slight hesitation in that response. He heard her sigh drearily. "Well, Elia_ can_ be the shameless flirt once in a while. I mean, she tried to make a pass at you and issue a death threat at the same time and ended up looking completely ridiculous. As behalf of her mentor, I would like to apologise for her atrocious behaviour towards another Black Spell member."

"No problem." He waited, but there was no reply.

Spanner looked up.

Kiriyuu was sitting rigidly in her seat, her eyes scanning the words of a piece of paper clamped in her hand which she'd retrieved from his 'Confidential Files' shelf. He instantly recognised the piece of paper; it was a report. It was a report of the supposed project he and Shouichi had worked together some time ago. And now Kiriyuu had found it. She put down the paper, looked at Spanner in slight disbelief –

"Oh." He'd merely said.

She was suddenly in a fit, her eyes wide and shaking. She was writhing furiously, her head and body thrashing around in her spot in the chair, her lips pulled back in a hideous snarl. She was screaming raucously, almost animal-like and shuddering fiercely in the wheelchair, making it rise up and down on the ground with dull thumps. She threw her handcuffed hands up and down on one of the arm rests of her wheelchair, trying to break free, but to no avail.

He tried to calm her down, cast aside the welding gun and mask. "Okay, stop that." He said, his voice volume going higher than usual, he actually really hadn't felt so worked up before in his life, as she got out of the wheelchair and began to assault the robot on the table. She had also picked up spare, loose parts he hadn't noticed from a musty-old cardboard box and was throwing them precariously on the floor in an angry rage. She picked up a screwdriver, threw that against the wall, she picked up hammer and threw that as well. Then she picked a bunch of nails, and threw them on the floor, too.

"Kiriyuu, stop it – "

He'd remembered that he'd packed his gun up as well with the old junk in boxes yesterday during the tidy-up phase and didn't know which box he had put it in, and he had no orders to shoot her in the head if this happened, and if he didn't shoot her in the head, then he'd have an angry disciple to deal with wielding a meat cleaver, ready to rip out his vocal chords. She let out an infuriated scream, almost a wail, mixed with hatred and anger. She wasn't stopping in her rampage, that was for sure. Spanner was telling her to stop, but she didn't listen to him. His voice was amplified in her ears and she'd started to get a fierce headache. She had to make his voice go away; the source of the headache. She grabbed a discarded, sharp piece of frag metal and she turned round with the metal, ready to stab –

She stopped.

Spanner had grabbed her wrist; which had just stopped centimetres from his chest. The piece of sharp metal dropped out of her fingers and clattered to the floor. He breathed a sigh of relief. At least he'd saved his laboratory from being destroyed from a maenad (well, she reminded him of one).

"You're okay now." He said. "Calm down."

She stopped eventually once she was out of breath, her eyes wide and confused, and turned to him slowly. Her expression gradually softened, loosening into one of confusion and misery. Her lip wobbled at him, as she struggled to some extent under his grip again, but he wasn't letting go. She blinked blankly at him, and then cast her gaze over to the robot. Her fists unclenched, and she relaxed somewhat, now blinking surely yet unsteadily.

"Everything will be fine."

She hiccupped. "I was…. I was… about to… I was about to kill you…" She squeaked out, her voice barely above a whisper. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, trembling, coughed into her other hand. A thick stream of blood then began to flow out from one nostril. He instantly handed her a tissue from his pocket; she didn't accept it. Spanner now found himself smearing at her nose, like as if she was a five year old who had had just fallen off her bike or something and he was helping patch her up.

Her lips moved slightly. She was trying to speak again. But then she stopped altogether, and looked at the ground.

"What's wrong?" He took the file that was clenched under her knuckles off her and back into the safety of his pocket.

She gave him a little shake of her head, sniffling.

"You don't feel like talking anymore – that's fine. Just relax. Steady." He moved her back down to the wheelchair. His eyes flicked to the elastic strap; there was a good reason why it was there. To his complete and utter surprise (he had been surprised by her actions at least five times today by now and in less than an hour), she had grabbed the end of the strap and tried to pull it over herself. She looked back at him, gestured fiercely to the strap. "You want me to tie you down?"

Kiriyuu sat back, refused to look at him.

"Okay, fine." He pulled the strap back over her, clipped it to the 'seatbelt' apparatus on her wheelchair. "Feel better?"

Suddenly, a drop of water splashed over his leather glove. He looked up. She'd remembered what Elia said earlier on, and she was crying. She looked back at him with the tearstained face.

"…. They're going to destroy Longchamp… and I can't do anything to help him…"

………….

"How is the coffin coming along, Mr Spanner?"

"… It'll take a few days, I have a tight schedule, you know. Have you chosen what exterior you'd like it to be constructed out of?"

"Mahogany. I've always liked the colour and the texture. I'd ask Kiriyuu, but…." Her smile had dropped; she was now looking at Kiriyuu, her expression crossed with doubt. "….I… don't think it's a good idea to ask her what she wants her coffin to be made out of."

Spanner thought to himself. Kiriyuu already knew that they were building her coffin, however.

Elia sighed, watching Kiriyuu outside from the glass of the door. "Mr Spanner. They said she doesn't have long to live. She may seem okay on the outside, but inside, she's failing. Her body's failing. She could be out any time, any day. Did you notice? The depression has severely altered her personality. Sometimes she's very quiet, and then she gets really violent. She HAS lost some aspects of her memory, but then she'd suddenly draw up on some general stuff that she can still remember, then forget it all over again. So her memory sort of comes and goes. It's quite hard to explain it all. Kiriyuu's mind is such an enigma."

He raised an eyebrow, shot her a look, and then glanced back at Kiriyuu. "…. She can come over to visit again if you're busy."

"Really? Why the change of mind, Mr Spanner?"

"I feel like I have some kind responsibility now." Spanner replied courteously.

She shrugged inwardly, though obviously pleased with his offer.

When Elia had returned from her meeting with the supervisor, she'd exclaimed to Kiriyuu that she had successfully taken over Kiriyuu's previous job as Commander for temporary until she got better. Kiriyuu was now in the silent, staring-into-space mode. Elia also realised that Spanner's office actually looked relatively messy than usual – not that it wasn't really much a mess before anyway. She grabbed the handles of her wheelchair and steered her out of the room for the time being so she wouldn't get it in the way, then proceeded in helping Spanner tidy up.

"She had a nosebleed. I don't think it's just depression."

Elia whipped her head back up to Spanner, shocked, "A nosebleed? D-Did you provoke her?!"

"I didn't. This did." Spanner wiggled the paper, that had triggered off Kiriyuu's rampage, in front of her.

"… What is it?" She calmed down.

He glanced away from her, back to the report in his hand. "… The reason why she's like this now."

* * *

Oh, that chapter didn't seem to improve anything at all…. I guess this is the 'end' for TYL for the moment.

This chapter was a bit of a pity chapter. LOL. It was put up because I felt so sorry for Kiriyuu…. she really needed a friend. Lol. Spanner equals Friend… Frieeeeend…


	27. The Guilty and the Goldfish

Okay, going back to TYB now! This is the Summer festival chapter, manga Vol. 7

**Chapter 27**

_The Guilty and the Goldfish_

**A few weeks later (TYB)…**

**7am.**

The mafia Job Centre website was surprisingly NOT chock-full of new positions so far. Although she logged in as a Giglio Nero member, their section also featured no job postings up today. She wanted a job. Any job, like a part-time job or a bounty or something, just to get some extra cash. Doing chores for Hibari was starting to get meaningless and dull. Besides, Hibari never helped her with the chores anymore (not that he'd ever help her, either). But there was nothing that piqued her interests. All she found was a new job opening in the Cervello as a bookkeeper, then something in the Vendicare as a Cremator. Not exactly good jobs, and the pay was pretty crap. Plus, it was an additional bonus if you actually had some legal history and some kind of alliance with the Cervello and the Vendicare. Kiriyuu had none, so she wasn't allowed to apply.

Kiriyuu sighed as she gazed across Hibari's lawn from the open window, the weather puppet hanging from the window fluttered elegantly in the breeze. She'd abandoned job-hunting and deleted her browsing history from Hibari's computer to go back downstairs and stare outside for the time being. Hibari eloped with a book the size of Namimori's Yellow Pages all about the legal compliances of Summer Festival Stalls up to the roof and was never seen since for the past half hour.

She sighed again. There was only one thing that was worth her while so far.

Aside from going on Plastic Dumbo elephant-shaped carriages in Disneyland Tokyo and taking pictures with human-sized Timon and Pumbaa mascots, there was another important occurrence Kiriyuu had wanted to experience during her stay in Japan - the annual Summer Festival where people wore yukatas, hair could be adorned with fancy floral decorations and would not stick out like a sore thumb in crowds, and last but not least - the prestigious goldfish stand which attracted thousands of children to go goldfishing in blow-up, shallow, rubber wading pools. Finally! The annual summer festival! She had been waiting for 2 weeks(!). Kiriyuu would never have gotten up so early if it hadn't been for Hibari. He was taking responsibility over the Summer Festival and was already up and around the house.

And he also refused her entry. Strange, Kiriyuu never knew that a festival needed entry regards. Then again, she would never defy the Hibari and whatever he said or did.

"Why can't I go?" She demanded furiously yet obviously confused, however.

"You still have to clean your room."

Kiriyuu really wanted to go to the Festival, so she thought it'd be a good idea to get on Hibari's good side for now. So she listened to him, trudged back into her room and began to tidy. The good thing was that the Festival started at 2pm (and finished at 10pm). So that meant she had some time left to suck up to Hibari. All she did was stuff the rubbish littering on the floor into a binbag without a second thought (she just knew she didn't need it anymore), then she crammed the rest of her leftover, scattered belongings in the floor into her cupboards without giving a second thought either. She didn't bother to fold her clothes and shoved those into the suitcase. She then ran to the bathroom, soaked a mopping flannel and squeezed it of excess hot water and then just smothered and dabbed recklessly at the dusty surfaces of her bedside table before moving onto the floor. Not exactly cleaning. She just wanted it over and done with.

She'd spotted something on the floor.

It was something that she knew wasn't there yesterday. It looked like a piece of discarded gum wrapper. Rubbish. Shrugging, she didn't bother to inspect it any more (it was just gum paper), picked it up and put it on the bedside table before beginning to scour her floor for hair that lopped off her hairbrush and gathered dust with the flannel (she had a lot of hair on the floor. Hmm, very strange).

"You missed a spot."

Kiriyuu leapt at the sound of his voice; she hit her head on the bottom of the low shelf. Cursing as she nursed her head, she rose up from the floor and turned back to him, resisting the urge to smother him with the wet flannel of dust and Kiriyuu hair. "…. O-Okay."

"What about this?" Hibari had picked up the gum paper she had left on her table.

She turned back round, then dismissed it with a flick of her wrist as she attended to more important matters. "Hm? Oh, that. It's nothing. Could you throw that in the binbag for me?"

Hibari unfolded the paper first. It was strange. It said:

**YOU WILL GET HIT BY THE 10 YEAR BAZOOKA TOMORROW.**

…. Very strange. He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you don't need it?" He asked her. The message sounded like those kinds of cheesy horoscope stuff…. Had she been secretly calling those Psychic hotlines behind his back?

"Yes, yes, it's trash. Just bin it."

So he did.

……………

When she had finished, Hibari was back on the roof. She went to find him again.

"Can I go to the festival now?"

"No, you still have lots of chores to do."

_WHAAAAT?!_ Kiriyuu thought she was about to pop a gasket. And she'd cleaned her room, too! (Seriously, what was the point if it'd just get messy again? She'd rather just leave it alone) "B-But I really want to go...and you said I could go if I cleaned my room..." She moaned at him from the ground, shielding her eyes from the intensive light from the sun. Hibari looked like a black blob from where she was.

"No, I didn't."

"But-But...." Her lip wobbled tremendously. "I really want to go!! Pleeeeeeeeaaaaassssssse?"

Urgh. "Fine, whatever." He grudgingly grunted out as he glared back at her. She could now see him properly because his head was blocking the sun.

"Thanks Hibari!"

Hibari's expression was strange. Kiriyuu thought he was angry now. _Never mind, I'll get Hibari something from the Festival. It'll cheer him up._ She dismissed the thought for now and went back inside to get an ice cream.

………………………..

Hibari returned back inside the house with a slight tan to get dressed for the festival. Kiriyuu was slumped on her front like a shrivelled up, wriggly caterpillar in front of the tiny electronic fan, an ice lolly stick stuck in her mouth, her head twisted to the side. Hibari gave her one look over his shoulder, then proceeded in going up the stairs. Kiriyuu blinked sluggishly, then pulled herself up, and trudged after him.

"Stop following me."

Her eye twitched.

"E-Eh, I wasn – Feh, who in the right mind would want to stalk you? You're not hot or anything. I certainly don't think you are." She barked back at him with her arms crossed, she flicked her head away from him with a snooty snort (au contraire, Kiriyuu).

He rolled his eyes and further ignored her. She promptly marched back into the lounge and sat down on the floor, cross-legged. She was really looking forward to the Goldfish Catching Booth that would be promptly put up for this one-night special event only. Besides, Hibari and his Committee were in charge of the Summer Festival in Namimori; that meant it would be silly not to come. She was also looking forward to see the fireworks - and she had already agreed to go with Kyoko and Haru, too.

The one thing she forgot was:

"Yukata." She blurted out to Hibari as she stood at the foot of the stairs. She returned back to the stairs. He stopped at the landing; arms crossed over his chest, his book tucked under one arm. She called his name twenty times from downstairs just for this? She continued, looking extremely embarrassed, "Eto… I don't have one."

"That's your problem."

Her lip wavered at his remark. "Eto… I don't want to ask Kyoko or Haru... I'll be too much of a burden - plus, it's today, eto...such short notice... they won't be happy." Unfortunately for Kiriyuu, a bad trait of hers was to let things happen at the last minute. She knew she didn't bring one with her on her way from Italy, deciding to buy one in Japan instead - but she also didn't account herself to not have enough money to buy one. She bit her lip and stomped at the ground. "It's not fair..."

"Just wear your normal everyday clothes."

"But Hibari… I really want to wear a yukata..." She whined at him. "Or some kind of fancy costume… Hmm, oh, wait! I got it! I packed my glow-in-the-dark glove costume from last year's Halloween party! Nah, I can't go to a public event dressed as a marigold rubber glove…."

Hibari sighed, turned back round, and entered his room. She heard the door slam shut. She waited wistfully at the bottom of the landing, a little eager, anticipating Hibari – for what? Hibari coming back out with a yukata especially designed for men or for the unisex? Probably not. Nothing happened after a few minutes. Grumbling again, Kiriyuu marched upstairs and then entered her own room, before messing around in her suitcase and fished out a suitable outfit she only used for emergencies - a plain t-shirt and jeans, along with flat, casual shoes. She frowned at the pieces of clothing, however, and tossed it to the side before crossing her arms over and still muttering obscenities incoherently under her breath.

Suddenly, the door to her room jerked open and Kiriyuu looked up.

"Here." Hibari said, tossing something at her directly - Kiriyuu didn't catch it because of her slow reactions and it landed over her face. When she pulled the bundle away, she blinked at it, and then gasped. A yukata? It was silky white, with pink Mokuren flower prints; it looked in top-shape condition, not even a seam out of place, or a thread poking out. It was... beautiful. She liked the feel of the silk, too. Mmm, silky... soft... slippery... it smelt a bit strange though.

Once she stopped marvelling at the fabrication, she gaped back up at him. "Where'd you - ?"

"It might be a bit too big for you." He merely replied, before shutting her door behind him.

She blinked at the spot Hibari had been dully, then held up the yukata - and smiled. Hmm, but where did Hibari get this from? Uh-oh, weird images swam into her mind. An obscene Hibari wearing a woman's yukata prancing around in front of the mirror was part of the slideshow, and Kiriyuu snapped out with a squeak. What, Hibari a cross-dresser?! Kiriyuu slapped herself mentally. Bad images!! Bad!

**11:30am.**

Hibari was long gone before Kiriyuu was properly ready - so she had to meet Kyoko and Haru by herself. The yukata _was _a bit too long - she ended up shuffling around on the ground with her arms clasped together, her white-sock feet feeling the silk as she waddled around in her clog shoes - well, that's what she called them - yeah, she actually managed to get something authentic except from the yukata this time. Kiriyuu did several experimental run-throughs with the yukata – so far, so good. The doorbell rang; Haru was the first person to come, though she said she would meet up with them at the Gate.

"Kiriyuu-chan… your yukata is so nice… it looks really…um… genuine!" Haru squawked, as Kiriyuu twirled around.

"Hibari gave me it."

"…. He did?"

"Yeah, look – I can walk like those Japanese concubines in ancient dramas on TV!" Kiriyuu squealed, shuffling back towards the lounge.

Haru laughed, as they both sat down."Kiriyuu-chan, are you also going to do your hair? Oh, let me do it!" She bubbled to the ginger-haired girl, also wearing a yukata which Kiriyuu could die for. Her hair was swept up in a bun this time, with several strands of hair framing her face; Kiriyuu grinned at her in response.

Haru sat Kiriyuu down and tried to suss out what to do with her hair; her layers weren't too thin or thick, and the length was fine – Haru decided to pin up some of Kiriyuu's hair into a bun (like hers), but placed the leftover hair sitting down over one shoulder. Haru gave her a pocket mirror so she could glimpse at her work.

"Wow! I look just like you! Thanks a lot, Haru-chan! You're awesome!" Kiriyuu gushed, turning back to Haru, who basked in her hair-styling skills. "Eto… I think I'm missing something though…"

"What's that?" Haru asked, and followed Kiriyuu's glance that had landed on the chopstick stand on Hibari's counter.

They both turned back to each other and grinned sleazily again as if they had both read each other's thoughts. "Aha…"

**2pm.**

_50,000 yen._

Hibari was asking for the impossible, possibly. Then again, that was another reason just to let his Committee trash people's stands and further terrorise his community. His time spent in the actual Festival was usually just consisted of guarding, watching, observing, supervising – which just had him standing in one spot like a photosynthesising plant (he didn't have to move a lot under the sun) – that was pretty much about it. Oh, but this time, there were pilferers he was searching for. Apparently, there was a case of a shady guy wearing a cap who would snatch money containers off stands. He ordered his Disciplinary Committee to split up for this hunt.

"Hey, Hibari!"

He pushed past the girl and continued on his pursuit for the Summer Festival thief.

Kiriyuu frowned at him, tugging at the rims of her yukata sleeve. "HEY!" She yelled at him; her voice growing high on volume than usual one notch. It made almost everyone in the park turn their heads to her.

Hibari turned around instead; the girl stopped waving her arms around and blinked at him. "I'm busy." He said, frowning.

There was a slight silence. "Eto. You're not supposed to say that!" She hissed at him, flailing around again, the sleeves of the yukata jiggling around. He knew it was a mistake letting her borrow it… it probably wasn't too late to get it back – but he didn't want an improperly dressed Kiriyuu walking around the Festival grounds, either.

"What do you mean?"

"It's our trademark Conversation-Starter. Eto… I go '_Hey. Hibari_' and then you're supposed to say '_What?_' but this time you said 'I'm busy'…That's mutiny…" She said, sadly. Hibari frowned at her. What an idiot.

He immediately hit her over the head, almost knocking over the chopsticks rammed into her hair. "I don't have time for this."

"How come you're not wearing a yukata?" Kiriyuu asked once her eyeballs stopped bouncing in her their sockets and her corneas stopped making her see a blur of mixed colours. She immediately began fussing about her hair again desperately. She felt proud and happy wearing a yukata, after all.

"I have a duty." He paused then, his eyes on her head – or more like, the things poking out of her head. Chopsticks?? In her hair? "… You took those from the kitchen stand, didn't you?"

Kiriyuu grinned immediately. "Yes, I'm glad you noticed!"

His expression did change at all. Still-pissed-off Hibari. Kiriyuu looked down, ashamed of herself. She should be! Hibari watched on impatiently as she took the chopsticks out and handed them back to him. "You are going to die once I get back to you."

"Eeek!" She squealed at the threat that didn't even sound threatening – that was the magic of Hibari. "B-B-But…"

"Shut up."

"…." She squirmed out from the way of his path and hung her head in shame, as he stormed past her – his mood now extremely wavering in the DANGER-ZONE.

Once he was out of her view, Kiriyuu sighed again, sniffling a bit, as Kyoko and Haru wandered up to her from the sidelines, having seen everything – how Kiriyuu put up with that was astonishing, really – Haru placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Eto, he didn't notice." She said, flapping the sleeves of the yukata around.

"He noticed the chopsticks though." Haru said, then she shook her head. "He's not worth your time."

"Um. What now?"

"Kiriyuu-chan, we can go to the Goldfish stand you wanted to go to so much…" Kyoko suggested, smiling reassuringly at the girl.

"Thanks, but no thanks…" Kiriyuu then said. "I think I'm going to go to the Shooting Booth. See ya."

……..

Even though the first half of the Festival was spent with laughter and girl-fun for Kiriyuu, she now utilised the remaining time moping around. She stopped at the Shooting Booth – one of them was out of stock since apparently, a certain baby had excelled in it and won all available prizes, unfortunately for the proprietor. She went to the other, which had not-so-great prizes, such as googly-eyed Troll dolls with big hair, cheap stuffed animals and plastic swords – oh well, better than nothing. She spent the next half hour winning several prizes there and found herself having to carry a binbag of worthless goodies over her shoulder, then eventually sauntered up to the Goldfish Stand and squatted down beside the rims of the plastic, blow-up shallow swim pool, swarming with all kinds of goldfish.

"Where's my motivation?" She moaned to no-one in particular as her net broke again and she was left goldfish-less. "Eto, Hibari didn't notice me at all…" Hmph, why was she still bothering anyway? Hibari didn't like her anyway… "The goldfish have something against me… I just know it." She then mumbled despondently.

"Eh? Ottuso-san? Iie, I should really call you Kiriyuu-chan now." A hand patted her shoulder, and she looked up.

"Kenji-san?"

The Social Worker smiled, wrinkles appearing from all four corners of his old face. The middle-aged man, wearing a black suit like usual, squatted down beside her, placing his briefcase near him securely. "Goldfishing, eh?"

She nodded dumbly at him, and then turned back to the pool, staring into the shallow depths where tiny, multi-coloured Japanese goldfish weaved around, and she held up her paper net. "Eto, I've not had much luck catching them – It's not fair, eto... The paper keeps breaking. These stands are just out to get your money!" She declared unhappily.

"Have you got one in mind?"

"That one." She pointed to a Black Molly – the one with extra bubble eyes, too. "I want that one, eto."

"That's easy. All you have to do is concentrate." Kenji purchased a paper net and then looped the net behind Kiriyuu's designated fish, avoiding the other nets of little children who were also waving their nets in the water. Kiriyuu watched on, as Kenji stalked the Black Molly effortlessly, before finally swiping up the fish in one fluid motion – success!?

Her mouth dropped as Kenji handed the fish to the Booth owner, who then slipped the fish into a bag of water. He dunked the net in again and scooped up another fish, which he also placed inside the bag. "Eto… that was awesome!" Kiriyuu cheered.

"I used to win loads at these stands, Kiriyuu-chan. Here you go – "

He paused after handing the bag to the girl. Kiriyuu stopped marvelling at the fish and glanced up. "Eto. Something wrong?"

"That yukata." Kenji began, and Kiriyuu looked down at herself. "That's… I mean… Hibari-san gave it to you, right?"

She nodded.

"… It used to belong to his mother."

Kiriyuu paused soon, after hearing that. "_W-What_?"

"That yukata belonged to Hibari-san's mother. She used to wear it during the summer. It was her favourite." Kenji turned deathly pale, his eyes bulging. That was either a good response to the fact that she was wearing the yukata, or a bad response.

"Oh… Oh, no." Kiriyuu then muttered out, looking equally uncomfortable as he did, before abruptly turning to him, grabbing his arm. "Kenji-san, I'm doomed!"

"What? Why? Hibari-san, giving you his mother's cherished belongings – that's… I mean… that's… _wow_… right?"

She blubbered hysterically, "Yeah, but-but-but I can't be trusted with priceless things, eto!" She squawked nervously at the old man, flapping her sleeves around again – they wavered dangerously towards the surface of the water in the pool. She screamed, yanking her arm back up, then breathing heavily, sweating heavily.

"Calm down, Kiriyuu-chan – as long as you don't get anything on it, you'll be fine."

She laughed awkwardly, nervously, uncomfortably and the rest. "Y-Y-Yeah…ehehe… right…" Then she gulped. "Eep…."

……………

The Festival was now a newly pronounced DANGEROUS YUKATA-STAINING-ZONE. If she knew this was Hibari's mother's, she wouldn't have worn it regardless. Kiriyuu had a knack to get things messy by the end of the day no matter what happened. She also wished that she would not bump into Hibari at one point. Kyoko and Haru had completely vanished off the face of the earth, and Tsuna's stand was not much of a Home base, because of the chocolate bananas they were selling.

"Step away from the yukata – I have a rape whistle and I'm not afraid to use it!" She yelled threateningly at a man who was walking dangerously close to her for comfort, pulling out her whistle from inside her yukata.

"What's your problem? Geez…" He mumbled, stalking off.

Next, she bumped into another person. "Oops, sorry." Kiriyuu quickly apologised profusely.

There was a silence.

Kiriyuu looked up. The guy she bumped into was wearing a loose white shirt and loose boyfriend jeans, glasses propped over his nose and a funny beanie hat flung over his black hair. He just stared monotonously back at her. Kiriyuu's eye twitched slightly, and she flicked her eyes to the side, and back. He still didn't even say a word. Not even a 'No problem'.

"S-Sorry… Please excuse me(!)" She swallowed, and quickly scurried away from him and back within the radius of potential normal people. _What's that guy's problem? Sheesh…._

Not just that, but she realised that the yukata could possibly gather up mud round the ankles as she shuffled around, so Kiriyuu tried to hike them up above her ankles – balancing on one foot. She pursed her lips, and then began to waddle back onto the main path, now wondering what to do as she watched the other Festival-goers bustle around and enjoy their time here. That also reminded Kiriyuu; she had agreed to watch the fireworks with Tsuna and his friends this evening, too – and then suddenly –

Kiriyuu was pushed from behind, falling forward – she fell, arms thrashing in midair madly as she tried to regain balance. Instead, her fingers grasped a newly-found hold and she managed to stop herself from falling, as the guy in the shady-cap who had rudely pushed her also shoved his way through the strollers, earning rude profanities being thrown at him.

"Phew…I'm saved." She said, with a growing smile as she stood back up. "Wonder why that guy was in such a rush…"

Before long, Tsuna came running up, breathing heavily. He stopped briefly in front of Kiriyuu, and she patted his back for him. "Um. You okie?"

"… Stop… thief… that guy… box… stole the money!!" Tsuna squawked at her, and then stopped. "E-Eh… Kiriyuu-chan, your yukata…"

Silence. Kiriyuu already seemed to know what had happened, and dared not to look, but then even her curiosity betrayed her as she averted her gaze down to her left sleeve – where a toffee apple was sticking onto it. The guy at the toffee apple stand certainly didn't look too happy either.

"You're still paying for that." He said.

She blanched. "AAAAAAAAARGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…………..

Everyone was having a great time. Except from the one poor sod who had to get someone else's yukata dirty.

"Must. Wash. Stain. No. Matter. What. Eto!!" Kiriyuu screamed frantically, running the sleeve of the yukata under the taps, her heart beating more than 300 beats per second. Not good. Not good. Not good! This was not good! "It's not coming off! EEEK!"

The toffee apple stain was a suave, coffee coloured; a medium-crater of a sticky mess on the sleeve. Thank god Tsuna was there to tell her about the stain, or she would've just continued walking around the area like that without even noticing. Tsuna himself, had went to catch the thief who had apparently made off with the money they made at the Choco-banana stand, and had also bumped into Kiriyuu.

After all, she had to be the oh-so-fateful one standing in the thief's path.

"WHY DO THESE THINGS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?!" She bellowed out to the darkening sky with her arms up in a melodramatic spot-light pose, scaring people around her within a five metre radius, then proceeded in rubbing furiously at the stain.

The water got rid of the sticky-ness – but the colour persisted. What made it worse was that it was silk. The yukata was completely made out of 100 percent silk – and silk was hard to wash. The soap was certainly not working, either. That was it. She was dead. Dead meat – for getting Hibari's mother's yukata dirty, with a toffee-apple stain.

She visualised herself bloody and rid of her skin, just a lump of flesh and bone, now being hung up over a conveyor belt, the nook of a hook pierced through her the ankle of leg, reminding herself of pig's skinless carcasses in slaughterhouses, while Hibari stood stiffly at the end of the belt, with a meat cleaver in hand, an iron helmet over his entire head, dressed in nothing but a butcher's smock that was drenched with blood and salty, dingy yellow-muddy stains that reminded her of human pus. More dirty, grotesque yet disturbing visions ensued and she gagged. ARGH! Cruel world!

Kiriyuu stopped, her heart now practically had stopped beating, and she slumped over the wall, seeing her life flash before her eyes. It was really short. Most of it included Hibari beating her up – which would be happening very soon.

_I'm so dead…_

"There you are."

Silence. Her Brain Jukebox then began continuously playing the main theme from the '_Psycho_' movie like a need scratching on a record, Kiriyuu twisted her head to the right – to see Hibari standing beside her, wearing a dark cobalt yukata; his appearance looked a little dishevelled than usual though. He also looked rather tired and weary; probably because the Summer Festival duties had been so tiresome. Still, this was the first time she'd seen Hibari in something else other than his uniform and casual wear.

"AAAARRGHHHHH!" She screamed in his face, his hair practically blowing back. "HIBARI?!"

While Hibari made sure that his ears were still working fine – Kiriyuu had tried to run away – but he grabbed her by the back of her collar and brought her back to her feet in front of him. She was trying to blow into her rape whistle for help, too. But he snatched it off her.

"So…. Eto… did you catch the pilferer?" She asked, a tiny, awkward grin forming.

He nodded, the rape whistle in his hand (where did she get it from anyway?); it was as if he knew what she had done without her having to tell him. Hibari made Kiriyuu feel even guiltier – since the yukata he had trusted her with was his mother's…

"The fireworks are starting soon."

"Y-Yeah…. Um, eto… that yukata you're wearing…?"

"It was my father's."

"Eek!" She squeaked. More guilt welled up inside Kiriyuu. This was soon followed with a few moments of silence.

"Hold your hand out." He gestured to her clenched fists that hung stiffly by her sides, rigid.

"… Huh?"

"Just hold it out."

Kiriyuu did so, her palm open in front of Hibari; it looked as if she was demanding something from him. He withdrew something from his inner folding of his yukata, and placed something onto her palm. Kiriyuu blinked, as he moved his hand away.

She was now holding a hairpin in her hand.

Kiriyuu blinked again, this time, in utter surprise. She then gaped up at Hibari, and back at the pin. It was silver, with a pink sakura blossom at the end, followed by a few thin braids with glistening crystals attached to the end. She swallowed down heavily.

"So… I take it you found this in the gutter." She muttered out wobbly.

He smacked her on the head. "No. I bought it - If you use chopsticks again, I will really kill you." He then grunted out at her, crossing his arms over his chest.

She was speechless – not at the death threat this time, but at Hibari's 'gift', and she just stared at the clasp, then finally, back at Hibari. "… Thank you." She stuttered out. Then, she frowned at him. "Why are you doing this?! Stop it! You're giving me the wrong impression! Take it back!"

She tried to hand it back to him, but he wasn't having any of it. "It wasn't worth much anyway. Just keep it."

Kiriyuu looked up at him with teary eyes. Yes, that just made her more confused than ever, and angry. The pin just stayed in her open palms as she stared at it. She really did like the pin. He rolled his eyes, as Kiriyuu then excitedly rammed the pin carelessly into her tightly-pulled back twists of hair atop her head. The clasp kept falling off. She frowned, then attempted again – Hibari grabbed her wrist before she could inevitably break the thing without even trying to.

"I'll do it." He said smoothly, and she went bright red in the face. "Come closer."

She shook her head.

Hibari's eyes narrowed and she gulped loudly, then waddled up to him as he ordered, and lowered her head. Nevah defy the Hibari!

"Chin up."

"Do I have to…?" She mumbled out.

"Just do it."

She paused: _Hmm, I wonder what would happen if he said 'Just do it or I'll punch your eyes out'?_

(Well, obviously he'd punch her eyes out) Hibari was still waiting.

She looked up eventually; he looked at her. Hibari didn't move for a slight second. They stared at each other. Blood began rushing to Kiriyuu's face, as she swallowed down heavily. Damn it, even though she had been with him and interacted with him for such a long time, and even though she told herself countless of times that having feelings for Hibari were unnecessary and would just end up with her heart torn in half; she still couldn't help but… blush! She clamped her eyelids shut, then looked back down again, and Hibari sighed slightly. He slipped the pin in effortlessly, and stepped back. Kiriyuu opened her eyes now, blinking at him – he waited for a response; instead of that goofy smile she always had on - it was a look of guilt and remorse.

Hibari watched her, now seemingly glowering. "What's wrong with you?" That didn't even sound like a question.

"I…I…I…"

"You look like you're hiding something from me."

"I…I…I…."

"Spit it out."

"Yessssss!" She then confessed, wailing out loudly. "I did it! I got your yukata dirtyyyyy….. It was me!! ….I'm so sorry!" Her bottom lip wobbled fiercely as he stared her down, and then she burst into tears, going down on her knees before wrapping her arms around his waist and pasting her head to his… uh… abdomen. Yeah.

One eyebrow twitched as she showed him the toffee stain; it was hardly visible after fifteen minutes of insane scrubbing, to be honest. Hibari didn't even notice it until she told him, to be honest. She wiped her reddening eyes. "I tried washing it… eto, but nothing worked! It's silk… and silk is hard to wash off…"

"……..." Uh-oh. Deadly silent Hibari didn't bode well.

"I'll give you something to make it up… um, eto…. Goldfish?" She grinned nervously, holding up her bag of two goldfish. One looked half-dead, actually. Maybe it was because she jiggled the bag too much.

Hibari frowned deeply. "I hate goldfish."

Kiriyuu thought a knife just went through her heart. How could anyone hate goldfish?! Sure, if you don't _**like **_them, that's okay… but how could you hate them? Well, Hibari did, apparently… sobs…

Hibari was silent. Uh-oh, that was _really_ bad. A sigh would've been okay, but Hibari did absolutely… gulp… _nothing_, this was really, _**really**_ bad. He glanced back at her. Kiriyuu shrunk under him then, and refused to meet his gaze.

"Eto… Hibari, if you're going to kill me… do it quick and painless… okie?"

There was a deathly silence in the air, then -

"….I don't think so."

"Nuuu!"

And thus, concludes Kiriyuu's once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at Namimori's Summer Festival, with Hibari.

* * *

A much happier chapter today :D Hope you enjoyed it


	28. The Departed

I got rid of some ramblings I had previously posted up to get to the main point of my author notes; the plot is really quite unlikely, mind-boggling, and has too many 'What if' and 'Why' questions and probably has you going 'WTH?' again. _**Remember**_, this story is completely **AU**. The character Kiriyuu is a figment of my imagination and so is this story which I have put her into it.

**Chapter 28**

_Requiem for the Dearly Departed_

Kiriyuu never thought much about the future.

Just the past and present. Right now, all she could think about was the festival last night, which ended with Kiriyuu watching the fireworks with Hibari through one eye. Plus, she also had lost feeling in one leg, and an arm was seemingly dislocated in a strange way. The yukata Kiriyuu borrowed from Hibari was dispatched to professional dry-cleaners and the bill eventually ended up in more than 1500 yen just to get the stain out (all because of the vintage silk). Kiriyuu had to pay for it, too, since she got it dirty. After that, the yukatas were stowed away, never to be worn (or worn by Kiriyuu again, that's for sure) until the next festival. Anyway, summer vacation was almost over, but the summer weather still persisted, and Kiriyuu spent most of the holiday recuperating; from physical pain, exhaustion, and the ungodly heat.

Hibari now found himself in a dilemma.

"Kiriyuu. There are no more carrots."

"Hurh…?" Said girl looked up dazedly from her spot on the front porch, as the electronic fan that had been blowing cool air into her face suddenly gave out a weak fizz and broke down eventually – that thing had been spluttering out dust for some time now – and glanced up at Hibari, who had an uber-long shopping list in his hand.

It was at least 100 degrees and there was no difference to the temperature wherever they went. Not even under a rock, as Kiriyuu tried before. So she just removed at least half of her clothes, leaving herself in a loose top and shorts, and stopped moving around in general, succumbing to the summer heatwave of Namimori, now experiencing total dizziness and a difference in her personality.

"… Oh… okie… Ah'll git yer carrits… **-hic-**" She complied without making any complaint as she usually would do. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up, and put a hand over her mouth, before glancing back up at Hibari. "I have duh hiccupsh -**hic-**"

"You'll get a glass of water after you come back." He told her.

"Feh-Fine...-**hic-** Gimme duh lisht…"

"Before you go, put some more clothes on."

"But it'sh sho -**hic**- hawt…"

"Other men will stare at you."

"… Okie, okie…" If Kiriyuu hadn't been so dazed, she would've thought more about the truth behind that comment.

She finished shopping forty five minutes. Usually, it'd take about twenty, but because she was so dazed and slow, it took longer. Kiriyuu got the carrots and lumbered out of the shop, looking as if she was half-awake – she then passed Tsuna's house, and was invited into Tsuna's house; it was so hot and she had been on her way back home when Tsuna's mama asked her to come in – so she agreed to anyway, and enjoyed a nice cup of refreshing melon juice with Tsuna, Reborn, and Lambo constantly yelling 'Poo' in her ear, unfortunately.

"Cheese?" Tsuna asked, offering Kiriyuu a plate of Westershire cheddar. It was amazing that it hadn't melted yet in this scorching heatwave. Lambo was hovering near his cheese with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Kiriyuu blinked, then shook her head. Tsuna shrugged and returned back to his own plate. He stared at his block of cheese. "Alright, who spat on my cheese? Lambo?!"

"Nihihi!" Lambo ran away before Tsuna could grab him back. Lambo ran towards the direction of Reborn.

"Tsuna-san." Kiriyuu began and Tsuna stopped. She was still looking a bit hazy; the melon juice had cured her of her hiccups, however. "How can you live with such noise?"

Lambo and Reborn were messing around again.

Tsuna shrugged and dumped his cheese away into the bin. "It grows on you, I guess. Kiriyuu-chan, were you heading home from the shops? I don't want to keep you – in case Hibari-san hits you again – "

"Oh… that… and HIM…. It's okie… I'll be fine… Reborn-sama… what on earth are you doing?"

Tsuna glanced over and shook his head. "Don't mind them, they're always at it. Lambo, stop doing that – "

Reborn 'accidentally dropped' a slice of melon on Lambo's head. He looked up at the two teenagers who were now watching the scene with gaping mouths. "Oops."

"Reborn-sama?!" Kiriyuu squawked out, looking at Lambo who was writhing on the kitchen floor. But as she looked up at Tsuna and Reborn; they were acting like as if nothing was wrong.

"Oh, don't mind him, Kiriyuu-chan. He's always like that."

"….Aww… Are you okay, Lambo?" She knelt down beside the toddler and lifted him up into her arms.

"UWAAAGHHHAAHHHAAHHHH!" Lambo deliberately cried harder and clung onto her arm. She smiled helplessly at him and patted his melon-covered broccoli-hair.

Tsuna shook his head. _Lambo can be such an attention seeker sometimes…_

"Shut up." Reborn simply said, and then he lifted the entire rounded melon and threw it towards Lambo's direction.

Next came a blurred mix events as Lambo received the melon-splat right on the face, almost hitting Kiriyuu at the same time. Then – Lambo's lips wobbled tremendously, and he burst into tears once more; the 10-year-old bazooka came from nowhere was suddenly aimed towards Lambo's head.

Tsuna instantly remembered the future Kiriyuu's words from back in the camping trip. _DON'T YOU EVER SHOOT THE 10-YEAR-BAZOOKA AT ME EVER AGAIN, GOT THAT, VONGOLA?! _

"Kiriyuu, NOOoooOooo!" He then yelled as he threw himself towards them, an arm outstretched (dramatic background included). As soon as Tsuna tried to stop Kiriyuu who was trying to stop Lambo - he pulled the string. Instant mushroom cloud.

Kiriyuu and Lambo were gone within the cloud of smoke. The remaining two people in the kitchen stared wordlessly as the smoke finally cleared away. Tsuna was left gaping in his seat. "L-Lambo? K-Kiriyuu…?"

……………

Kiriyuu was in an alien spaceship. No, not really. It would've reminded her of one, with the multicoloured flashing lights and the odd machines surrounding her. It was also rather dark and humid. Even though she was experiencing the heatwave worse than everyone else, she knew she hated cramped, dark places. When she had woken up, her eyes snapped open and she let out a stifled gasp in a desperate attempt for air. And then –

A hand clamped over her mouth.

She thrashed; another hand held her down by the shoulder and she ceased struggling. She looked up, her eyes wide with terror; just above her, a light shone fiercely on her face, it felt like she was on a dentist's chair. An 'alien' moved by her left; and he removed the hand on her shoulder when she had seemingly calmed down once she realised that nothing had happened to her yet. She was lying on a table, covered by a white blanket. On her right, she could hear another alien talking Italian. The first alien, the one on her left, spoke back, then eventually moved into the light.

It wasn't an alien, but a man. She didn't recognise him; he was perhaps in his mid-twenties to thirties. Kiriyuu had always been rubbish at guessing people's ages and ended up offending them instead. His hair was a dull, sandy beach blonde colour, it was short, 'curled' in some areas to further match his dandy-looking appearance; his eyes looked tired yet relaxed, and he was wearing a jumpsuit, with big, phat, ginormous gloves on each hand covered in oil and grease. A short, white lollipop stick protruded out from his mouth. Her eye twitched fiercely as she gaped back at him, the tatty right-handed mitt still over her mouth.

"Don't be scared, we won't hurt you," he began, in Japanese, which surprised her a lot because she knew he was a foreigner, "You will find out that your life is not a fairytale, you are not on an alien spaceship. We are not aliens. This is not a spaceship. You will not discover that you were actually incubated in a vial of green fluid, and no, a mad scientist also did not give birth to you from an artificial womb."

D-Did he just read her mind?! No, he was reading off some kind of book in his other hand as he spoke. Kiriyuu blinked at it.

He read her mind again. "How do I know what you were thinking of? Simple. You wrote it in here; your diary." He held the book that was in his other up into the light. Her eyes widened again at the sight of it. It was her diary!!!!? No wonder she thought he was reading her mind! How did he get it?

"Don't be scared." He said again, "There are some important things we have to tell you, and there is not much time. So there will be no questions, just answers."

She nodded hesitantly. He did not take his hand off her mouth yet. And who was '_we_'?

"My name is Spanner." He added, "The man on your right is your godfather, who conveniently provided me with the diary you wrote when you were 14 years old." Her jaw dropped, as he glanced back to the yellowing book. Guiseppe gave this dandy-looking man her diary to read?! But… But… her diary was… private. It was her getaway to a different world where she could reveal her emotions without her having the fear of being judged…. Her lip wobbled as he flipped a page; he was disrupting her privacy right in front of her eyes... "According to your diary ten years ago, you were hit by the bazooka. Afterwards, you decided to leave Namimori, but there is no explanation; a big gap - and then you restart on your journal about your times training in the Giglio Nero."

A big gap? Kiriyuu didn't understand. Did something happen to her? Or was she too lazy to write entries?

Spanner continued despite her obvious shocked response. "Right now, you are in Millefiore territory and we are conducting an experiment, using the Time Requiem." He held up a small, white device that looked identical to a kitchen timer, only with more complex switches and buttons which seemed to be beep and fix at some point. "It is an electrical device that I used to send a message back to you in the past, 10 years before, as long as I set it correctly by location, date and time. Unfortunately, it's broken now because it is still rather underdeveloped. But you should've received prior notice that you were going to get hit by the 10-year-bazooka."

Kiriyuu blinked.

He spoke again, eyeing her down from above, "I used your diary, which you wrote 10 years ago this exact day, to work out the precise time when you would have left Namimori and joined the Millefiore. By using this, I was one step ahead of you."

Her eye twitched again yet she continued to listen.

Spanner then placed the diary down, and handed her something else that was just beside him; it was A4 sized. A tawny coloured folder that felt pretty light in her palm, as he made her fingers curl around it. "Take this folder, and read the contents thoroughly when you go back. It will explain everything. If you don't believe what I am telling you right now, take a look around you; I suppose it is a good reason to listen to us so you don't end up the way you're supposed to be now."

……………….

Meanwhile back in the past, Tsuna and Reborn, and an Older Lambo was still in the kitchen rifling through the fridge, while Tsuna and Reborn were left blinking blankly at one another.

However, TYL Kiriyuu was nowhere to be seen.

Tsuna looked around carefully. "No-one's here, Reborn. What does that mean?"

………………..

Kiriyuu was thoroughly confused. She was at a place called… Millyfeeor or something like that. She was on an operating table, 'summoned' by this man named Spanner who had explained to her what was seemingly going on yet she was still drawing a blank.

She just knew that she was somehow dead in the future; she was on a table, covered by a blanket, they were also in a room that reminded her of those post mortem examining rooms in TV shows concerning forensics and body autopsies….

"Spanner-san, if I may…." The man on her right finally spoke up. Spanner looked away from Kiriyuu, and then nodded. He released his hand off her, and Kiriyuu began to breathe steadily again as Spanner retreated into the corner. The old man looked vaguely familiar, if only he did not have red, inflamed, swollen eyes, a dribbling nose and tears blubbering out. He was tall, with scraggy, tufts of greying hair poking out of his cap. He was wearing a black suit, black trousers, a bespectacled nose. This was really Guiseppe from ten years later?

"G-Guiseppe? Is that you?"

"Oh, Kiriyuu, look at you. You have hair, you're healthy, you're alive… you're practically glowing!" Guiseppe sobbed at her, as he sat on the side of the table with a tissue in his hand.

"W-What's going on? Why am I here? How did I die?"

"It was all that wretched Hibari Kyouya's fault. He did this to you…"

"W-Wait. Tell me what's going on first."

"Read the folder. You must read it! It's all about the war between the Millefiore and the Vongola, and… you."

A war? Wait. Kiriyuu did a double-take. "…Hold on for a moment - Where's Elia…? I thought she - "

"She must never know what we are doing! I will never forgive that girl for betraying you!!" Guiseppe sobbed into his hanky again. Kiriyuu shrank back immediately at her Godfather's sudden outburst. He looked angry, and also upset, sad, distraught. But then he let out a sigh, and glanced back at her. "Oh, Kiriyuu, you were a Commander in the Millefiore…. She was your Second; she told me that she held a deep concern for you that you had ties with the Vongola – "

"What did she do to me?"

"She secretly reported to Byakuran-sama previously that you were in contact with the Guardian of the Mist. Whether or not she was lying, the Millefiore handle traitors effectively as possible. Elia came back for you after you'd split up from her, and then everything went wrong."

Kiriyuu didn't understand a word of it.

"You recovered at the Clinic but you didn't have much time to live. Your days were not made so lonesome by Spanner-san. He is such a nice young man. If only you'd met Spanner-san first before… maybe your life wouldn't have been so hard. And-And I do know this - Elia _**has**_ taken over your squad now. Once she was given your role, it came clear to me that it…. may have been her goal all along…. She wanted to get rid of you. If she thought that she would always be in your shadow and she would never be independent, I… I don't know, but…."

Kiriyuu blinked slowly. She froze all over. _So I'm not with the Vongola? What was I like in the future? Are the Vongola evil?_ "….I was… killed by Hibari? Of the Vongola? Hibari Kyouya?"

"Precisely."

"Why?"

Spanner checked the clock on his wall. "Time's up." Spanner moved back again, but Kiriyuu wanted to know more. He turned to her, as if reading her mind again, "I'm not doing this because of pity. You are an experiment, and always have been." Yet his tone was rather poignant. "I would like to make amends to your future and see the results. It may affect you in many ways. You probably will have not met me, you would not be a Millefiore and you wouldn't have died."

Guiseppe then grabbed her by the shoulders and her attention diverted from Spanner. "And-And when you go back, remember what we have told you. Read the folder contents. Stay away from Hibari Kyouya. Stay away from the Vongola. Take control of your life, do what is right, change your future. You still have so much to accomplish. Don't betray those who are close to you, and don't let yourself down."

…………….

When a 14-year old Kiriyuu had returned back to her time period, Spanner switched off the lights of the examining room and returned back to the main office with Guiseppe, who was still crying heavily into his hanky; this experiment had been a success, however. He hoped Kiriyuu had taken this encounter seriously. As he'd stayed up all night to read the diary entries of a measly 14 year old girl, which he'd requested from the girl's godfather, he seemed to get more involved without wanting to. He had only read the first page and realised that every entry had a sentence that was about Hibari Kyouya and how much she hated him. He'd also began to think about Kiriyuu in general. She was innocent. She was 14 and she didn't know any better. She didn't deserve what she had now. She deserved better.

Guiseppe shook his hand fiercely that it almost lobbed off his shoulder. "Oh, thank you, Spanner-san! Thank you so much for letting me so my little god-daughter once more! I can't thank you enough…"

"No problem." He retreated his hand, opened the door for Guiseppe as he moved towards the exit. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gotten her diary."

Guiseppe let out a weak laugh. "Aha, I knew it was a good idea to keep Kiriyuu's belongings… Do you think she understood it all? I mean, five minutes didn't seem enough to explain everything. I don't think we explained everything, actually."

Spanner let a small shrug of his wide shoulders. "She can read the folder; it'll explain what she needs to know."

Guiseppe sighed. "… So, Spanner-san, what happens now?"

He took his lollipop out of his mouth, swerved his eyes to the Examining room again, where the body should be, and back. Guiseppe also glanced to the room, and looked down at his shoes, let out a dreary sigh.

"A race will begin." Spanner began, "A race to save the future of Ottuso Kiriyuu."

* * *

Eek. I thought this chapter was absolutely horrendous. I hated it so much; I had so much difficulty in writing it and I'm still not satisfied with it and I feel like tearing my hair apart and smashing my head into my laptop screen - but I don't know how to improve it, either. I just wanted you guys to understand why this story exists in the first place, and the fact that it was not written just because I wanted to do a HibariOC! Sobs…

I wrote that no-one came in Kiriyuu's place was because her future self was dead, like Reborn, when he was hit. No-one came in his place, either. Um… I hope that makes sense.

It means that if you don't exist in the future, then your future self won't be able to go back in the past because you're gone. It's just like, if you don't exist in the past, then there is no future self. Um… Get it?


	29. A Hitman Reborn

**Chapter 29**

_A Hitman Reborn_

Kiriyuu was sitting on the kitchen floor when she returned to the past; there was no Spanner, no TYL Guiseppe, no flashing lights, no dead-person smell, either. Tsuna and Reborn were gaping at her from halfway across the room. A baby Lambo was crying loudly in the corner for no reason. The bazooka was beside her, fizzing out smoke weakly from the nozzle. The silence persisted - She didn't know what to say to them. Her mouth just opened and closed, like a fish out of water, hauled onto deck. In fact, she felt like one. Helpless, useless, unable to breathe properly too, probably.

"Kiriyuu, are you alright?" Reborn asked, since he realised that Tsuna was probably too shocked himself to speak at the moment; he was exceptionally concerned about this. It wasn't a good sign if no-one came in your place if you got hit by the bazooka. Tsuna just continued to gawp helplessly. Their glances then landed on her hand; she followed their gaze, and realised that she was holding an A4 file.

Tsuna let out an uncomfortable laugh to get rid of the unsettling silence; his eyes landed on her folder gripped in her hand. "You brought a present – "

Reborn kicked him.

She jerked into movement again, stared wide-eyed at the folder, and back up to them. Then she promptly quickly got up, brushed past Tsuna and Reborn, and made a mad dash to the bathroom upstairs, slamming the door shut behind her.

…………

In the bathroom, Kiriyuu locked the door, put down the toilet pan, sat down. Not exactly a good, hygienic and sanitary place to do this sort of thing, but she didn't care. Tsuna was knocking on the door asking her if she was alright, but she ignored him. Reborn was calling for her, too. She ignored him also, despite her ethics and the respect she held towards him. She flipped open the A4 file Spanner had given her and told her to read. She HAD to read it, apparently. _It will explain everything… _Like what?Why she was dead 10 years time?What was going on between the Vongola and the Giglio Nero?Why she was 'killed' by Hibari?Who Spanner really was?The fact that this was a cruel, sick joke?What happened to Elia, too?

When she opened the folder; it contained several documents. The first was a profile of herself future self in 10 years time – it was identical to her Giglio Nero one – the profile was like any other – it was stamped with a Giglio Nero family emblem, then another on top of it – one she didn't recognise; it had flowers on it, anyway. The profile had countless of details about her; her previous home address, health problems, birth name, blood type, education, other things from biodata etc. Even a passport photo was included, too. It was clipped under a paperclip along with the profile. Kiriyuu gawked at her future self; she would no longer smile, her eyes would be concentrated yet soulless, her face would look hollowed out with adjacent cheekbones and a sharp jawline. Her hair would be brown, longer than it was now. And her left cheek would be horribly scarred - a perpendicular streak of permanent trauma striking upwards from the jaw, near the bottom of her eye - She was mortified by the scar.

She stuffed the photo into her pocket a few seconds later, skimmed through the rest of the profile. Her mother would be deceased 10 years time, her only living, close relative would be Guiseppe, a retired hitman of the Black Spell. Elia was mentioned; her apprentice. It didn't seem much out of place. Only a few details were different, like her height and stuff, but that was pretty much it. Next, Kiriyuu moved onto the next. It was in a memorandum form; no Giglio Nero stamp this time, however, but a different one. Some kind of… flower seal. She had never seen it before.

_**MEMORANDUM**_

_**TO:**__ Spanner_

_**FROM:**__ Irie Shouichi_

_**DATE:**__ 21 January_

_**SUBJECT: **__The Experiment_

_The Cloud Guardian of the Vongola has emerged as the strongest out of the rest. _

_Byakuran has proposed a new, side-trial during this week's General Meeting, which discussed how we should deal with the Vongola Guardians, particularly Hibari Kyouya. It was decided that the new trial __**will **__involve Hibari Kyouya. He has requested that we develop a new device that will allow us to transmit possible, exponential short messages roughly to any era we desire since the issue regarding the Ten-Year-Bazooka still exploits more resources of what our current abilities and belated fundings can proffer. The reason for this is so we can attempt to send a perhaps decipherable message to our counterparts back ten years ago. While we are still developing a method to let humans be capable of physical time travel, Byakuran suggests that an intangible message without the use of a human subject will do work for the time being._

_He has also suggested we use a member of the Black Spell from the previous Giglio Nero for our subject of further study and observation since the Gesso famiglia's history is seemingly unsuitable. I have accepted his motion and results are expected the following ten months. The message we are to send to our past counterparts is to warn about the impending future we are living in today. It is also so we can learn how Hibari Kyouya came to power 10 years ago. If we can remove that factor, then our success in this future will be guaranteed._

_I have enclosed a list of potential candidates who will be commanded to infiltrate the Vongola. I await your response._

Kiriyuu flipped the memo over – a list. A list of names Kiriyuu did not recognise were on the sheet, in courier new font, some weird barcode beside them. Her name was circled with red marker pen, she was number 281 in the list. She put that memo away for the moment once she'd finished reading it. There was another memo; also from 'Irie Shouichi', and about an Experiment… Whatever the hell that was – something about Hibari, anyway - Something about him being the strongest Vongola Guardian.

_**MEMORANDUM**_

_**TO:**__ Spanner_

_**FROM:**__ Irie Shouichi_

_**DATE:**__ 25 January_

_**SUBJECT: **__RE: Candidate for Experiment_

_Thanks for the reply. I'm glad you agree with my suggestion; Candidate 281, Ottuso Kiriyuu does seem the likely candidate to undergo this experiment. Her background is clean with no current relationship with the Vongola; you asked in the previous memo how her name came up in the list - there is a profile in the Giglio Nero Information Base about her mother; a retired, promised hitman who served the family well and is now working on a Cannabis Farm. The genetic qualities her mother has passed down to her may be to our advantage --_

Kiriyuu ripped her eyes from this memo; she didn't bother to read that one at all. It was enough. It made sense. _An experiment_. She was the experiment. No wonder they chose her out of all people. And here she thought she was special. Yes, she was special. But in the wrong way.

She was a guinea pig. She had been the guinea pig all along.

Kiriyuu sat back in disbelief, the document fell out of her hand. It took a while for the whole thing to seep through her mind; it took her like the darkness of the night, and she could've sworn she felt an intrinsic, raging stir rattle through her. She had thought about the meaning life, but this time, it felt like a knife had ripped into her, ripped every shred of her dignity and humanity left. They went through her. It was a stab. A stab in the back. How could her family do this to her? How could people do that to her? She didn't even know them! Who was she to them? Was she that…. _worthless?_ She moved onto the next document reluctantly. This time, it was a letter, written in musty, black Indian ink that smeared in some places or another. It was signed by that Spanner guy she'd met. She read it closely.

_Shouichi and I worked on the Time Requiem together about a year ago from today. _

_Three quarters of the actual aspect regarding physical, tangible time travel was under Shouichi's responsibility, however. I was only to put the device together, while Shouichi carried out further research, therefore, there isn't much I can tell you about regarding the Millefiore's true objectives revolving around the 10-Year-Bazooka._

_The message was a barely distinguishable message, telling them to send Ottuso Kiriyuu to assassinate Hibari Kyouya. The Time Requiem sent the message back to the Giglio Nero, before they merged with the Gesso; before the Millefiore came to be. The Giglio Nero had to trust it because it was stamped with your family's seal – it was a seal used from the family's previous bosses so many years ago that it is extremely highly regarded no matter what. Byakuran had retained it from Uni for further use, and when your family, 10 years ago, discovered the message, realised it of high priority and urgency._

_After the message, the Time Requiem suffered damage due to its difficult mechanisms and delicate nature, and has proved to be complicated to repair because of the subtle barrier of subspace energy that surrounds it._

_Once I received a further memo from Irie a few months later, he said that he had successfully sent the message, and you, 10 years back, would've been dispatched to Namimori, Japan by now with the task we promised to Byakuran. Later, I discovered that your 24 year old self was in the Millefiore; the experiment hadn't been entirely a success because you had left Hibari with no apparent reason and he still became a Guardian. It is also not that simple, either. There seemed to be a third party objective that had altered your previous incentive to stay with Hibari. Whether you decided to say with Hibari or not, this was your outcome. But you were here. You were suddenly a Commander, and you suddenly hated the Vongola; there also seemed to be a very complicated relationship between you and Hibari which I have still to investigate in. _

_You had three different future aspects. The first life you could've led, was before we had sent the message altogether 10 years ago. The second life was the one you had now, just before you died. And the third…. This will be your new future. _

_Your rebirth into this world._

_Spanner._

Kiriyuu re-read the letter. Attached to the back of the letter, was a photograph; it was the Giglio Nero emblem of their _very first boss_. She paled as she stared at the photograph. It meant serious business. If anyone defied that – it meant going against the entire family. She still didn't understand anyway. She couldn't believe it. She was still as lost and uninformed as ever. Who was Byakuran? Who was Uni? Who the hell was this… 'Byakuran' to allow this? She felt her anger bubbling up to a hundred degrees; if she met him…. grr, she'd probably rip him apart. And what was going on in the future? She was furious. She didn't feel upset or scared anymore. She was fuming. She wanted to rip the letters up and stuff them into her mouth, but – this was important. It was some kind… proof, judging by all the emblems stamped on it.

She slammed the folder shut after ramming the letter back inside the folder, got up from her seat, stood in front of the mirror.

…………..

"Reborn, it's been five minutes! I haven't heard anything from her and we've been shouting for ages! You don't think - ?!" Tsuna squawked like a chicken on fire, his hands flailing all over the place until Reborn hit him over the head. He knew how unstable girls could be and how emotional they were – well, that's what he thought. Kiriyuu was no exception.

"I'm sure she's fine. That folder she was carrying, it must've – "

A scream, then – _**SMASH!**_

Reborn perked up at the ominous sound. Tsuna instantly paled at the sound that had emitted from the bathroom. "Kiriyuu?! Kiriyuu, are you okay?!"

"Break the door down, Tsuna." Reborn instructed calmly. He hoped that Kiriyuu hadn't done anything stupid (like stick her head down the toilet, per chance?).

"Eh? O-Oh, okay. I'm-I'm going to break down the door!" Tsuna yelled out, even though he actually sounded reluctant to. Wow, he was also listening to Reborn this time, too, without complaining, either. That was because he was worried about Kiriyuu, he knew she could get a bit kooky. He took a few steps into the corridor, backed against the wall, and closed his eyes. "YAAAARGHHHH!" He went charging like a bull towards the bathroom door –

- Which opened, and Tsuna almost crashed to the floor if Kiriyuu hadn't caught him by the scruff of the neck with an unusually aberrant reflex of her arm. She wasn't looking at him, however.

"….K-Kiriyuu…?" Tsuna squeaked out, as he opened his eyes, and glanced to her. There was something different about her. Something…. Dark, foreboding, and brooding, it wasn't like her.

Her hand was bleeding. The mirror in the bathroom was completely smashed, drenched in blood.

"I'm… sorry, I'll…I'll pay for the mirror…" She dropped Tsuna, and brushed past Reborn. She stalked back down the stairs without another word. Uh-oh, not an entirely good response. Tsuna and Reborn exchanged awkward glances. They quickly followed her back down the stairs – Kiriyuu blinked slowly; she knew Tsuna was saying something to her, Reborn was also saying something - but she wasn't listening. She stomped back into the kitchen, and checked the clock on the wall. It had only been roughly 10 minutes. Good. The bazooka was lying against the fridge, unguarded. Lambo was probably on the potty in the WC downstairs or something (since Kiriyuu hoarded the upstairs bathroom). Kiriyuu didn't care anyway. She snatched it from the ground and stared at it. She lifted it up; it felt rather light in her bloody hands, the sleek, cool, black metal and the immense firing power it held. Suddenly, this bazooka felt like the most precious thing to Kiriyuu in the world.

"Kiriyuu, what're you doing - ?!" Tsuna squawked, but Reborn stopped him instead with a small arm out, and shook his head. "It's dangerous!" Tsuna called out, but she still wasn't listening.

"…. I have to know, Tsuna." Kiriyuu said instead as she turned round to them. She pointed the bazooka to her head, and she pulled the string slowly herself. "I have to know the truth."

She was gone in a puff of smoke.

…………………..

Spanner felt a disturbance.

He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, and perked up from his telescope and rubbed his temples; he was trying to weld two thin wires together (it was 1000 times magnified). He lifted up his goggles and looked left and right. Nothing was out of place; the door to the examining room was closed. No draught, then. So it wasn't a chill he'd felt down his spine. It was something more menacing. He wondered why he still kept her body inside a cool box within the walls of the office. It certainly wasn't healthy, that's for sure. It was also forbidden in some way, hoarding Kiriyuu's body without telling anyone…. Hmm.

There was another sound from the examining room. A loud crash and then a thud. He craned his head back round. Spanner had never watched a scary movie recently so he wouldn't think twice about Kiriyuu becoming a zombie and crawling out to eat his mechanic information-filled brain before building a super-evil ray that would let her take over the world religiously – even though there was nothing religious about that. He certainly didn't believe in ghosts, either. He went back to work; he knew he was alone – that fact didn't relieve the uneasy atmosphere, however. Immediately, two tiny hands clamped around his neck as soon as he'd peered into the lens to get a better look at the joinery of the hotwires. The hands weren't even big enough to cover his neck, and now all he was suffering was his head being shaken to and fro.

"Spanner, you little bitch!" A high-pitched, female voice could be heard beside him. He grimaced, and turned round. "I'm going to kill you!!!"

It was 14 year old Kiriyuu, with effervescent orange locks that curled past her shoulders, round, innocent, waif-like green eyes, pale-pink rounded cheeks, and miniature hands….covered in blood. Awww, she was short. She was angry. She was cute, compared to her older, moody and brooding self. And she was also probably much happier than she was in the future. Her older self was sarcastic and surprisingly dark. Short, angry and cute. He dismissed the fact that she was trying to strangle him because they weren't strong enough to block his airduct and he couldn't feel any temporary impairment to his breathing anyway. Then again, violence in someone as young as her wasn't good. And she'd called him a bitch. Bad language in a youngster wasn't good, either.

"HOW DARE YOU!" She screamed in his ear; and he tried to keep her quiet by clamping another gloved hand over her mouth.

He winced as she slapped his hand away from her, cleared himself free of her blood. She eventually stopped a few moments later, exhausted. Hostility wasn't in him so he didn't do anything back except wait for her to wear herself out, which would be pretty soon. She didn't scream anymore, to his relief, and slumped against him, her head pasted against the front of his mechanic worksuit. "… Keep your voice down; no need to raise alarm to the entire Millefiore - "

"SILENCE, bitch!" Short pause, then - "It's my turn to speak and demand questions – "

"You mean answers – "

"I said 'sileeeeence'!"

He blinked. Then sighed. Verbal abuse was being hurled at him and all he could do was inhale it all in for the moment. Okay, maybe it was better if he made her calm down first.

She was holding the folder in one of her hands. "… How dare you give me this… this stupid file all about me, with all these random memorandums about an experiment and the Cloud Guardian and… all about the exploitation of an innocent Giglio Nero family member named Kiriyuu - and expect **ME** to read all about it at home, and accept the fact that I was used by you-you cruel people just to get to Hibari! How dare you!!" She screamed into his clothes, her voice muffled. She thumped her clenched fists on him repeatedly, throwing a tantrum. She made a funny whimpering sound.

Hmm, it was the same folder with the report and the memos her future self had read by accident. It was also the same one that sparked off that violent fit that had her almost stabbing a piece of sharp metal into him. "…. I'm sorry." Spanner murmured out as he reached for the roll of tissue on his desk. "There wasn't enough time to explain to you properly, so I had to give you the folder instead. I'm sorry you had to find out that way." But… the sooner she found out the truth, the better.

That just seemed to make the girl more infuriated than ever. She wouldn't accept the tissue as he nudged it towards her.

"You're bleeding." He gestured to her hand, which was bleeding profusely. She ignored him promptly. He sighed, reached over to the desk again and pulled out his first-aid kit. As a mechanic, Health and Safety was always top priority. He peeled out a few plasters from the tin, a roll of printed bandages, and egged them towards her.

"…Leave me alone." She was tearing up on the waterworks though as the pain spread.

He sighed again, turned her round, took her hands gently even though she resisted thoroughly. He slapped the plaster over the thick gashes, pulling out a few glass fragments in progress, wrapped them around her palms, and also wrapped up her fingers until they were like thick sausages.

"I…I broke a mirror." She eventually mumbled out. "That's 7 years of bad luck for me."

"No, that's superstition. You're too violent for a 14 year old."He finished patching her up. She was stuck with three layers of barney-bandages all over her palms. He'd forgotten the fact that she would probably find him and try to kill him from 10 years ago since they had easier access to the bazooka than they did now. Heck, she could probably track down his TYB self and kill him then. That was pretty scary, like the _Terminator_ or something, only she wasn't a muscle-bound, jarhead-cyborg.

"Heh, wait 'til you meet Hibari." Another pause, then – "Waaaah…. Hibari!!!" She cried, pasted her face flat against his chest again. She needed a hug, even if it was from some guy she just met 10 minutes ago.

"I'm sorry." He said softly, "…. It was an insensitive decision; I was the one who nominated you to go through this."

At first, she looked back up, gave him a very sour and suspicious look. Then – "What I was like in the future?"

He paused.

"Was I super-sexy? Did I have this amazing body? Was I the strongest hitman in the world? Did I have this amazing voice that – "

"………" He rubbed his temples. Everything spewing from Kiriyuu's voice was the weird 'ee-eee-eeeee-eee' ringing sound in his ears.

She wasn't finished - "… Was I a robot?" … That almost sounded slightly hopeful.

He heard that; almost choked on his lollipop.

"Did you build me?"

His eye twitched somewhat.

"I'm pretty sure I'm human -- I don't want to be a robot!!!"

He watched her with half-lidded eyes. That's some imagination she had. Then again, she was 14 and there were a lot of things she had yet to learn about. Couldn't exactly blame her. "….Sorry to disappoint you. But no, you're not a robot. I didn't build you."

"… So I really _DO_ die in 10 years time!" She then yelled, and she lifted her face up from his chest again, glaring at him with tearful, green eyes. "And the worst part is, I didn't even have to in the first place – it was all because of you people! You… changed my life by sending one measly little message and that changes everything about me!!! I met the worst guy in my life when I could've led a normal life and wouldn't have so many problems! You changed my future! You took everything from me! I'm gonna kill youuuuuu!"

Spanner let her 'toss' him around for a bit; her fingers still clamped around the collar of his suit, shaking him forwards and backwards, left and right again. Back and forth once more, side to side, like the gearstick of a car. He sighed inwardly; he was actually starting to feel slightly nauseous from the rocking-boat motion.

"You give me my life back! I want it back! It's my life! It's all meant to be mine! Not a stupid experiment of yours! I have a name! It's Ottuso Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole! I have parents! I have a_ life_ and I should live it the way I want to!! It's not something you write down on paper like a story and decide for yourself without consulting to me first!! I'm not a lab-rat in some kind of maze, looking for a bit of cheese! I'm a human and I have rights to live my life the way I want! It's mine, you got that?! Mine, mine, mine, mine!!!" She 'tossed' him around again. "And give me my diary back! It's private, and no-one else should be reading it! Especially a guy!"

He had to admit; it was probably the most entertaining and interesting thing he had ever read. "No." He replied curtly. He probably needed it for future reference (and for a few laughs). A few days ago and he had read that she thought her life was a fairytale; she wondered if she was actually born by a man with an artificial womb, and that she secretly wanted her life to have some kind of evil conspiracy behind it. What on earth went through her mind? He waited for her to calm down; that meant he had to endure more childish tantrums from the girl. "Kiriyuu. You can live your life the way you want to right away. You have rights. No-one is stopping you but yourself. Just walk away from everything that is happening right now….." He paused. "…. You still don't get it, do you?"

"OF COURSE I DON'T!!!" It was back to Kiriyuu strangling Spanner senseless again.

"Okay, okay." He let out a short sigh, twisted his lollipop around in his mouth for a moment from the stick, hearing the hard candy clatter against his molars. "I'll tell you what I know first - The Giglio Nero, led by Uni, and the Gesso, led by Byakuran, merged together to become the Millefiore. We are currently at war with the Vongola. It was natural that we were trying to develop a way to destroy the enemy. We developed a machine that transmitted a vague message about Hibari Kyouya. The Giglio Nero had no choice but to accept. The message was for you, our chosen candidate; it instructed them to dispatch you to assassinate Hibari, but all we wanted was you to spy on him. We also knew that at your current strength and abilities that time, it was highly impossible that you'd be able to kill him in the first place. There goes phase 1 of our experiment. I know, it is complicated, but Byakuran makes all the rules, not me."

She continued listening even though she didn't like any of what she was hearing at all. He propped her upright in his lap, as he didn't like her soaking up his front. She was so tiny compared to him, like a child's porcelain doll or something. He knew she was fragile, he knew she was frail, and naïve. Easy to break. "…Why is there a war?" She then asked.

Crap, he knew he'd have to face that question some time. "….. I'm not going to tell you."

She frowned dangerously at him. "Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me!" She grabbed the front of his collar again that their noses almost touched; he was now staring back into the eyes of a very, _**very**_ angry little 14 year old girl, and Kiriyuu wasn't entirely a normal 14 year old girl, either. She was violent. She could handle guns, and let's not forget the crazy animal-instinct properties hormones a teenager had that could induce her into a rampaging Godzilla. "_Whywontyoutellme?!_" She screamed loudly at 90mph.

His eardrums felt like they had burst, and he opened his eyes again, smoothed down his hair which had been blown back. "…The more you try to interrogate me, the more I won't tell you and the more you waste your time when you could find out about something else that is more important."

She bit her lip, let go of him and returned to her 'seat'. "F-Fine…."

He took a deep breath; this would be a long monologue, "Your future self is 24 years old. You are a Commander of one of the Black Spells squad; I forgot the name because there are too many – " He replied, and she rolled her eyes. He continued, " – You despised the Vongola. Elia goes off and tells someone that she thinks you are allied with the Vongola. This spreads to Byakuran, he sends people to interrogate you but you seemingly died at the scene, and Elia finds you. She says Hibari Kyouya killed you because he was the last person you saw, which probably makes the rumour that you were allied with the Vongola even worse. She takes you to my office after you recover; she wants me to build your coffin – "

"Okay, I get it. What's your point?"

"You are given the chance to avoid this from happening. You have the choice to save your life. So, ask yourself - what are you going to do now? And how are you going to do it? What will you sacrifice in order to live?"

Kiriyuu looked down. "…. Sacrifice?"

"Think about it. Your diary has entries about your times with the Vongola; you are friends with them; you went camping together. The way how I see it… I don't know why you suddenly despised them so much, but… It was your 'hatred' towards them, and the resent you felt for Hibari Kyouya, the freedom you wanted from him and your feelings for him that drove you to your end - So if you want to live, you will have to sacrifice your relationship with your friends, severe yourself from Hibari from now on, and have no more ties with them at all."

_I…. resent… Hibari?_ Her lip wobbled. Spanner knew she was soaking this in like a sponge; to be honest, what he wanted to achieve was the opposite. He didn't want to be the one who would tell her what to do.

He wanted Kiriyuu to be the one who would realise what was the right thing to do.

He took his lollipop out, Kiriyuu watched it somewhat, rather hungrily, too. "Or, you can sacrifice this family. But I highly doubt that, and you wouldn't have anywhere to go. You know it'll always be family first." Pause. "Oh. When you return back to the past, you must promise me this."

"What?"

"You cannot tell the Vongola about the war."

"….Huh?" She then frowned. "And why _**NOT**_?!"

He looked to the side. "Well…You have no evidence about this war right now. The report I gave you won't mean anything to them, you know, so you can't show them that."

She grumbled.

"They may not believe you, especially at this time – the scramble for the rings should be their top priority in due time – so the least they should be worrying about right now is a war that hasn't begun yet. I'm pretty sure that you're also afraid of what they'll do to you if they found out about the war. And you're also scared that our family will find out and pursuit you for siding with the enemy – "

"You don't know them! You don't know what the Vongola are like at all!" She suddenly snapped at him, trying hard not to cry, "If you met one of the Vongola – you'd think differently, too! In fact, if you met Tsuna, you'd see the Vongola from a different perspective!"

He sighed. "Listen; whichever the way how our family may use you to reach their objectives… I know you still understand the way how things work in our family, and where your loyalties lie. You won't betray your family in the end, because we are the ones who raised you. You were born into a powerful family. You owe everything you are now to us." He continued, "They are basically everything you are now. They sculpted you. You were raised by them. Don't underestimate our family - They could've forced your mother to terminate you while you were still in her womb. If it wasn't for us who decided to let you live, and provide you with food," He began to list with his fingers and she shrunk from him, " - and shelter, and even a proper education, you'd be out in the streets, living the life no difference to a common sewer rat. You'd bedead, and that is why you will always be indebted to the Giglio Nero whether you like it or not."

It was brutally honest, and harsh. But he was right. The Giglio Nero would always hold a power over her no matter how much she didn't want it.

"One more thing - Don't be naïve, Kiriyuu; even though you may trust these Vongola, how long have you known them for, compared to the Giglio Nero? What makes them any different to who and what we are? What if they're planning something up their sleeves, too? And don't forget, you're still part of the Giglio Nero. It doesn't matter if we were neutral with them today, yesterday or tomorrow."

He could see that she was starting to cry again, even though she was trying her best not to. "You wrote that you went with them to destroy the hideout of the Tomaso in Namimori. It was a reasonable decision, because the Vongola should not be so courteous to a potential rival family. This goes to all mafia around; it is like a business. Businesses compete with another and annihilate their rivals. What will make you any different to the Tomaso in the eyes of the Vongola? So I hope that changes your perspective of the Vongola even though they may be your 'friends'. They may have been friendly and hospitable to you before…. but if anything threatens their family, then be prepared for the worst. Think about it, before they decide that they want to destroy you, too."

Spanner paused. Well, those were words he never thought he'd say in his life.

Kiriyuu listened to it all. Everything he said was right; it struck a chord within her. She looked back down at the ground. "… I… I get it. This whole thing is because of the Vongola, and Hibari, right? I don't get the whole 'Guardians' bit, but… If they hadn't wanted Hibari to be part of their family in the first place, then he wouldn't have become the Guardian, and then you guys wouldn't have to use me to get to him… right?"

He gave her a small, yet rather doubtful nod of his head. Man, he had spoken so much. Well, he hadn't spoken this much to someone before. He needed water… water…. Quick.

"So…So it _**IS**_ the Vongola's fault…" She grumbled incoherently. He didn't hear.

He checked the clock on the wall. "Hmm, that's more than five minutes up. How come you're not gone yet?"

She glared; he ulped. Well, not really. As if he'd let some snot-nosed, 14 year old brat with hormone problems intimidate him and push him around, especially in his territory. She was roaring at him again, her clenched fists flailing in all sorts of direction. "Oh, that'd be suuuuuper, right? With me gone and you can go back to all your work and stuff and live a conscientious-free life without ever thinking that you cost an innocent girl to lose her life. Haha! WRONG! Even fate is with me! The bazooka must've broken down so I can have more time so I can still _**kill **_you!" She laughed maniacally in his face. She really was quite cute when she was younger, and extremely insane. Again, she tried to strangle him. But this time, they just ended up in a tangle of arms and legs.

He ended up having to lift her off from him from under the arms and back upright like a teddy bear even though she kicked and screamed. She was so tiny compared to him, really. "Watch my tools. They're sharp and delicate."

"… Oh. Sorry." She mumbled – which surprised him a lot – she then looked up at him apprehensively, "…. You don't look like a bad person."

"Huh, you're one to talk about judging people by their appearances."

Kiriyuu continued, "…. And to think, you could do something like that to someone…. Don't say it was a 'spur of the moment', I won't take that excuse. You know: 'Oh, it was a spur of the moment so that's why I chose Kiriyuu to be part of the experiment…' That's a load of crap! And that letter – oooh, don't get me even started on it! It was stupid and gangly; I didn't understand any of it! I don't want to!"

"Okay, I understand that you're still angry – "

She just felt murderous regardless. "I'm not just angry, I really wanna _**kill **_somebody, i.e. **YOU**!" She went 'raaaaargh' like a mad dog high with rabies and lunged at him, tried to strangle him again; he held her back by using his palm, which was pressed against her forehead. She was now flailing in mid-action, trying to reach his neck. He let her go, and she slumped back over his front again, gripping the fabric of his trousers. He hesitated, looked up and sighed, then slowly put a hand over the top of her head. Her fingers curled under the hem of his trousers even tighter as she rubbed her face against it, still sniffling. "… I don't want to die… I know it's natural, but I don't want die the way I'm supposed to in 10 years time… I don't want to be killed by Hibari…. Is… Is it selfish of me to say such a thing?"

He actually wasn't sure how to answer to that.

"Why me, Spanner…?" She began again, "There are so many other people…. Why did it have to be _**me**_…?"

"… Would you rather have other people take your place? Would you rather have not met Hibari?"

She looked up at him, knowing that he had successfully pissed her off yet made her realise the truth, and that's what irked her. Her face scrunched up in a sour expression; no, she wouldn't want other innocent individuals taking her place, and no, she wouldn't want to have NOT met Hibari in the first place. Even though she self-acclaimed so much that she hated him, but… Deep inside, she knew meeting Hibari was the best and worst thing that could happen to her.

"NO!" She then seethed out, bunching up a bit of his baggy trousers in her hands. "I want Hibari all to myself! No-one else can have him but me! No-one else is allowed to kill him but me! He's mine, mine, mine, MINE!!!"

He gave her a tiny, awkward, brief smile. She was rather possessive, too. Hm.

"Spanner, what do I do now?"

"It's up to you. You have to decide yourself. What path will you choose?"

"…….." She then sniffled, wiping at her eyes. "… I still don't understand why you're doing this. You said you didn't pity me. Why do you want to save my life? It doesn't mean anything to you - " She grumbled out. " - You don't even know me. And you're a mechanic. You're not meant to do these kinds of things. You're not supposed to care about these things and give long lectures and dramatic, life-changing, mind-boggling monologues. You're not going to get a 'good Samaritan' award, that's for sure!"

He waited. "Well, we are…………….. family." That was a long pause. He coughed somewhat into his glove. Awkward, but true.

"I don't believe you." She said with a snort, "… I don't blame you. No, I mean, I… I forgive you, Spanner. But just because we're 'family' isn't a strong reason for you to help me. It's your job, right?"

The expression on his face somewhat fell. "…. No, that's not it."

"Huh?" She hadn't heard him; too busy engrossed in staring at those Power Rangers-look-alike robots in the corner.

"By the way, you can't hit yourself with the bazooka after this either. You're going to be cremated."

"…….. Nnngh."

"The way how I see it…." He glanced down at her. She still wasn't looking at him, her eyes still engrossed with the floor. He let out a short sigh, made her look at him for the moment, and he smiled again. "… Isn't it also natural to want to see one of the 'best things'?" And Spanner knew that he had got through to her -

"…. _Best thing_? You mean a miracle?" She frowned. "That's the LAMEST thing I've ever heard."

Well, no, not really. But it was close.

……………

She didn't understand when he said he wanted see one of the 'best things'. She just understood this: She had to prevent her death. She had to prevent her death at the hands of the Vongola. Hibari. Everything pointed like a big, fat, red arrow to him.

She felt alone, without Spanner, or Guiseppe, or Elia, even if she would betray Kiriyuu in the future. Elia, and Guiseppe, were suddenly the closest people she would have as 'family'. Tsuna and Reborn were looking expectantly at her, waiting for a response. She just froze up on the spot; she didn't know what to say to them. She didn't know how to react to them anymore. She ran out of Tsuna's house once she realised she was back in the past. When she'd looked at them – her… her… friends? Tsuna… Reborn… No, they weren't her friends. They were the Vongola. They were a rival family. Why would anyone from a rival family call the other…. Friend??

Every muscle in her body clenched. She was stuck now. She didn't know. She just didn't know anymore.

They were waiting for some kind of response from her – she stood there as reality slammed back into her and she remembered what Spanner had said and she felt afraid. She felt afraid of them; what Spanner said just went around and around in a tight circle. Hibari – the Giglio Nero – the Vongola – Hibari – The Giglio Nero, and so forth. Kiriyuu thought her brain would explode any minute, she felt the contents of her stomach almost ride up the back and out her gullet. She didn't say anything to Tsuna, or Reborn, despite the fact that they were calling after her as she ran out of their house. She'd left her grocery bags, and even her shoes in the house. She ran out bare-foot, she just knew she had to get away; she had to get away from the Vongola now. Nothing else mattered.

She was terrified.

Kiriyuu tripped over somewhat, stumbled forward and collapsed onto her knees on the pavement. She ignored the stares she received from passerbys, engrossed in staring at the dark, paved path in front of her even though her knees were beginning to throb. Her fingers clenched, gathering up dirt and her nails scraping against the warm, dry, thickened tar. A few drops of sweat fell off her forehead and stained the ground in front of her. Her eyes were wide, pupils trembling. She was shaking all of a sudden; she couldn't seem to stop.

She got it. She got her wish.

Her life had been a conspiracy all along.

And it felt horrible.

………………

There goes the elaborate, rather-screwed-up plot of my story.

Now TYB, Kiriyuu has found out what happens in the future, so it begins – she has to prevent her death in the future, her supposed 'alliance' with Mukuro, AND change her entire future life in the Millefiore. I know, I know, it's really quite far-fetched… I really should've made it much easier, right? -Sigh-


	30. Scarface

Wow, Chapter 30 already? Again, another movie title pun chapter. I apologise.

Oh, beware the Hibari-OOC! Beeeewaaaaare!!!

**Chapter 30**

_Scarface_

_(aka The Exodus)_

So how should a person, who found out that they died 10 years from now, should react? What should Kiriyuu do? Steal the bazooka again and shoot herself, find out more? No, there was no need. She knew enough already. But she didn't understand much of it either.

Or, she could make a start on Spanner's suggestion; live life the way she wanted. Okay, she would go back to Hibari's house, dress up as Hibari and socially ruin his reputation by strutting around in town, flirting with any girl, playing in a swingpark, square-dancing to '_I Believe in Miracles_' with the seniors in the old community centre downtown, and much, much more that it was too diabolical and evil, even for Kiriyuu to accomplish.

And when she got bored of doing that, she'd prank-call everyone in Namimori pretending to be a pizza delivery girl, she would also grab a permanent marker and scribble all over his walls and vandalise his pictureseques, steal Hibari's leftover ice-cream from the fridge, put music up loud to the maximum and dance like there was no tomorrow while singing off-key with a hairbrush and air-guitaring with her tongue waggling out, then she would leap on the sofa and watch whatever TV she wanted and stuff her face full of popcorn. She'd super-glue the toilet pan seat down (since it irritated him so much whenever she left it down), throw her homework up in the air shoot holes in it with her gun, then strip stark naked and run up and down the stairs while whooping and screaming.

…Maybe not.

Besides, Hibari's house seemed off-limits now. And he certainly wouldn't appreciate her running around his house like a lunatic with no clothes on. But dressing up as Hibari and ruining him was tempting. She moved from her spot and towards the path, still with no shoes on. She didn't feel any pain as stones and debris cut into her soles. She had suffered enough mentally. Such little pain on her feet was absolutely nothing to be complaining about.

But why did she still have to die?

Why her?

It was unfair.

_Why me?_ She thought bitterly, _I've never killed anyone. I eat my vegetables. I study hard. I try and do good deeds. The only bad thing I did was shoot a guy in the kneecap by accident. So why does this have to happen to me?_

"Kiriyuu! There you are!"

"MI ARRENDO!!!" She screamed out loud, arms up in the air at the sound of Tsuna's voice. As he approached her, she gaped anxiously at the boy as he stopped shortly in front of her, slightly out of breath. What was worse was that Tsuna was accompanied by Yamamoto and Gokudera, too. Oh god, she thought, the rest of the nerd Brigadoon were here too. Her eye twitched. What would she say?? She knew about the war. She knew something they didn't. What was worse was that it was her family and another who was waging war on them in the future.

What would she say?

Something like: 'Hi Tsuna, tenth boss of the Vongola. Hi there, Gokudera, right-hand-man-of-the-tenth-who-would-not-hesitate-to-kill-me-if-I-accidentally-slipped-a-plasic-knife-but-still-a-knife-into-Tsuna's-chest, hi Yamamoto (hmm, nothing much there yet). Oh, by the way, my family will ally with another family and decide to kill half your people 10 years time for some unknown reason I do not know yet. So, what are you guys up to? Wanna go for an ice cream later on, eh, eh?'

Kiriyuu paled.

No.

No frickin' way.

Her lip wobbled. She couldn't be friends with them anymore. She couldn't be friends with these people anymore. It wouldn't work out. She was already feeling guilty. There was no way she could even go against her family, and warn the Vongola, when she was part of her family herself. Her family meant everything. That meant she'd be going against Guiseppe and Elia. No, that wasn't right either. She would not want to associate herself with her family anymore, but un-associating yourself with your family was hard. You didn't call the shots.

The Giglio Nero were also a rather stingy bunch.

Especially since Kiriyuu had a life-long history with her family, if she'd decided to dump them; they'd probably think that she would leak all the Giglio Nero information and plans out to others, and it'd just be like a complete stab in the back. But Kiriyuu thought she had suffered the stab in her back by her family first. But still, she couldn't go against her family. Not when it would just be her going against her family in the first place. She'd be killed.

What was a nice way of telling someone that you didn't want to be their friend anymore?

….

…..

……..Urgh. She didn't know. She had never thought about these kinds of things before and didn't know why she should.

"Hey, Kiriyuu-chan, what are you doing here by yourself?" Yamamoto greeted her cheerfully. No response. He blinked at her; she wasn't looking at him at all.

Tsuna quickly spoke up afterwards, "Kiriyuu, you left these at my house, a-are you okay?" At first there was a silence. Tsuna watched her mouth open slightly, but then she closed it, and shook her head. She let out a hushed sniffle, still shaking her head. "What's wrong? Hibari-senpai did something to you again?"

She just shook her head again, still trying to decide how to un-associate herself with these particular individuals, and she accepted the bags without a word. Tsuna reached a hand to her –

"…. Don't touch me."

Tsuna blinked; glanced at Gokudera who just shrugged. "K-Kiriyuu, w-what's wrong?"

So far so good. "Leave me alone." She turned back round to all of them sharply, her eyebrows knitting together crossly. "Just leave me alone, okay?" _There will be a war in the future, 10 years from now, between the Millefiore, and the Vongola. _She wanted to tell them. She wanted to scream and yell it out. She wanted to warn them, but…

But…. She…

_She…_

She just couldn't.

Kiriyuu felt rotten. She was helpless. She was perhaps the worst person on earth, as she eyed the Vongola back. She was the most ill-fated one on earth. And she didn't like and thousands of questions littered her mind. She could not find an answer to any of them.

_I'm betraying the Vongola. I don't deserve them to be my friends. _"I don't want to see you guys ever again." She added, even though each word was so hard to escape from her mouth. She had to.

_How could I go against everyone like that?_

_How could I be so cruel and go against Reborn, Tsuna, Yamamoto, Gokudera, Ryohei… Everyone._

Kiriyuu always thought there was some justice in this world, but no, she was wrong. What was the point in friends? What was the point of loyalty and relationships? Also, doing good deeds didn't get you your just rewards, all it did bit you back in the ass and that was it. And what are worse, people reaped the rewards off you. The bad people. What goes round comes around, she supposed.

…_.How could this happen…?_

Spanner was right. She remembered his words vividly: _You went with them to destroy the Tomaso. It was a reasonable decision, because why would the Vongola be so courteous to any member of a rival family? So what makes you any different to the Tomaso in the eyes of the Vongola?_

She went with them to destroy Longhchamp.

It was a sensible decision, because they were rivals to the Vongola.

Kiriyuu was no different to Longchamp because she was from the Giglio Nero.

"Kiriyuu, what are you talking about?" Yamamoto let out an awkward chuckle, stepping forward towards her. "What's wrong with you, eh? Something bad happen?"

She backed away from them immediately. The other bad thing about Kiriyuu was that she was sometimes too easily influenced, goaded and misled. When someone told her something, she often became too absorbed into it. She was too sensitive; she thought too much and dwelled on it. She dwelled on Spanner's words profoundly and ended up viewing the Vongola… these people…they were no different to strangers in her view now.

"Kiriyuu, when you were it by the bazooka – "

"I believe that's none of your business." She suddenly snapped back at Tsuna irately. "Don't you bring that up in front of me ever again."

"Hey," Gokudera stepped in now as Tsuna shrank back, slightly hurt by her words. He was Kiriyuu's friend…. Couldn't she tell him? Gokudera was now glaring at her, "Don't talk to Juudaime in that tone – "

"This doesn't concern you either." Kiriyuu suddenly yelled back.

"Kiriyuu, what's wrong? Why are you so – "

She interrupted Yamamoto immediately. "Just leave me alone from now on, alright?!" Without another word, she turned away from them and fled out from the park.

"Come back, Kiriyuu!!" Tsuna and Yamamoto yelled after her, but she ignored them profusely. Tsuna even attempted to run after her, but Yamamoto promptly stopped him.

"… Maybe we should give her some time alone." Yamamoto watched her retreating back. "What's wrong with Kiriyuu anyway, Tsuna?"

"I… I don't know. It was all after she got hit by the bazooka."

Gokudera snorted, lighting a cigarette he took out from his pocket. "Never mind her, Juudaime."

"Hmm… There must be something up. Let's go find Hibari-san." Tsuna suddenly blanched.

Well, that was something he never thought he'd say in his entire life.

…………..

Let's not forget that whatever revolves around Kiriyuu, revolves around Hibari in some way, too.

He had returned home from further grocery-shopping since Kiriyuu had forgotten more important items he had deliberately put on the list outlined by fluorescent yellow ink – which she somehow still managed to completely fail to notice by chance. Once he'd returned back, he realised that the front door was locked, which was strange, because normally, she would've forgotten to lock the door in the first place (despite the fact that he was literally in charge of Namimori therefore the discipline would be under his control, but the other fact was that insane criminals who had crawled out from sewers still lurked loosely around these parts, and it certainly wouldn't help if one of them decided to rob his house because some inconsiderate idiot forgot to lock the front door – and he really doubted that Kiriyuu had the capability to hold the robber off, too).

Hm?

This really was weird. The house was clean, and rather devoid. And he'd only been gone for half an hour; she couldn't have done the chores that quickly, right? He pulled off his shoes first, then dropped the bags down on the spotless kitchen floor, and returned to the landing. He called for her. No response. Hibari marched up the stairs after a few minutes of quietness, he arrived just outside her room, and twisted the doorknob – it opened.

No Kiriyuu. He checked the rest of the house; still no sign of the girl. He then checked the closet under the stairs.

No, she hadn't locked herself in there by accident again, either.

After he finished putting the groceries into the fridge, he stepped back out of the house again. He looked around Namimori; hunted around for tall-tale ginger hair in some of her favourite spots - the bridge, the schoolgrounds, the shrine, the Mall - no Kiriyuu. Now Hibari pondered whether he should go to the baby and that Sawada Tsuna.

It was roughly eight at night when he'd found her. By that time, it had started to rain; the monsoon hadn't entirely cleared up yet, and he hadn't brought an umbrella with him to shield himself from the torrential downpour, nor had he had anything to eat to keep his energy up.

He knocked on the door, eerily calm.

Kiriyuu looked up from her spot on the ground; aside from the sound of pelting rain on the glass, she could hear Hibari knocking loud and clear. She was crouching, holding her head tightly in her arms, her eyes squeezed shut. There hadn't been anything she could find which tied the Giglio Nero and the Vongola. There was nothing in the Giglio Nero history that had anything against the Vongola. They were neutral. They weren't enemies. They thrived harmoniously and peacefully. She didn't know much about the history between the Giglio Nero and the Vongola, however. She just knew about Giglio Nero history, that was all.

_I don't want to wage war with the Vongola in the future. I can't do that to Tsuna, Reborn and Yamamoto, Gokudera… everyone… I don't want to hurt them. I don't want to go against Hibari, either!!! But I can't go against my family… They're everything, even though I don't want to admit it. They've always looked after me. I'm only 14 years old! I can't survive in this world by myself! But Hibari's alone. No, Hibari's different… I'm not like him. He's strong. And I'm… I'm weak._

Yes, Hibari would always triumph over her.

_But I don't want to defy my family._

Yes, they raised her from birth. She had extreme loyalty to them whether she liked it or not. It was something embedded within her. It was innate.

_I don't want to leave Hibari even though he…_

Yes, there was no-one else like Hibari for all that mattered, and she doubted that she would meet another person just like him.

_And I don't want to betray the Vongola either!_

Yes, she also loved Namimori and its residents, too. She loved her friends.

_Argh. I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. It's not happening. _

_I hate Hibari for all these unnecessary feelings and the torment he's inflicted on me._

_I hate the Giglio Nero for using me and sending me to Hibari._

_I hate the Vongola for causing this whole thing in the first place._

_I hate them all!_

_I have to hate them!!!_

Her head hurt. It was throbbing so badly; it actually felt literally like blu-tack being stretched and pulled in all possible directions, and now her brain felt like it was reduced to a gooey, mushy pulp. Screaming, she squeezed her eyes shut and curled into a foetal position. She had actually brought a headache onto herself; she had been thinking so much over the past few minutes. But now, the solution to all her problems seemed so clear.

Meanwhile, Hibari had been standing outside for the past 5 minutes, and she _**still**_ failed to realise that he was there.

"Open up." He barked at her.

She looked up from her spot on the ground; she was going to shake her head, but then she got up, and reluctantly opened the door for him to stomp inside the tiny shelter from the rain. Kiriyuu had found sanctuary in a telephone booth in the park. It wasn't big enough for two people – she went back down the floor, crouching with her hands over her head, like as if she was cowering from something (ie, him, probably) – under the telephone that was firmly attached to the walls of the booth. She didn't say anything to him as he slammed the shutter shut behind him, glaring at her from above. Hibari had realised that if he yelled at her now; it wouldn't go into her ears. Something was wrong.

"…. How did you find me?" She whimpered out.

"I could see you from across the road."

"Oh."

He watched her, and then he lowered himself in front of her, almost kneeling. She let out a squeak, her eyes were closed tightly as Hibari grabbed her hands and tried to pry them off the crown of her skull. There was definitely something wrong about her; she'd been acting strange since she came home from grocery-shopping. And she was acting strange towards Sawada Tsuna, too. Normally she'd be chatty and abrasive, but she was all quiet and emo. It was just like back at the training camp when she'd blubbered all her feelings and all that crap to him; very unlike Kiriyuu, who was usually bubbly and loud for her own damn good. He didn't even know what was wrong with her. She didn't tell him; maybe it was some kind of girl, PMS-ing thing…

"No, Hibari, don't." She whimpered out, trying to pull her hands back.

"… What's wrong?" He asked monotonously; not that he really was actually asking what was wrong with her because he was worried about her and…. No. Most definitely not. actually, maybe it was a bit. He was getting slightly…. Concerned about her behaviour and occasional personality swings. "What happened to your hand?" He gestured to her bandaged right hand.

She held up her thick sausage-bandaged fingers and wailed, tried to rub at her eyes which didn't seem to work, and she still wouldn't look at him. "I…. I…. I'm scared."

"Scared of what?" He frowned at her. "I ordered you not to watch those late night movies."

She shook her head meekly, her eyes brimming with tears as she sniffled. "No! It's not the movies… it's… it's… oh, you won't understand…" She mumbled out instead.

"Tell me or else."

"No."

"Stop being stubborn."

"… Hibari..." She sniffled again; what? He really wanted to know that he would be her murderer 10 years time?! It probably was very predictable, yet she knew she couldn't tell him what had happened; she just couldn't! Instead, she blurted out, "… Why would you care?"

Hibari suddenly found himself stumbling for an answer. Yes, why did he care? Why?? There was an unsettling silence. You could ask Hibari what the meaning of life was, but never, _**ever**_, ask Hibari about why he would… 'care' about _anyone_! Particularly Kiriyuu.

He watched her again; she didn't seem to care about his response anyway, engrossed with the squashed chewing gum-covered floor. He suddenly found himself somewhat battling an inner war of his hidden inner emotions that were locked up within him for years (until now); they were NOT going to invade him and take over. Not now, anyway.

"… I know that things haven't been that great between us and I still feel distant from you than ever, but… I just know that I really like you and now that this has happened, I don't know what to do anymore..." The rain wasn't lighting up at all. In fact, it became heavier, and Kiriyuu's quiet voice became drowned in the telephone booth they were crammed in. It was quite surprising that she wasn't feeling claustrophobic yet.

Kiriyuu abandoned her sentence, leaving Hibari to ponder about what she meant by 'now that this had happened'. What was '_this_'? He frowned; she inched towards him and pasted her head against his chest. He ended up moving back, the ground was surprisingly dry; Kiriyuu just buried herself into him, her eyes still closed tightly. He raised an eyebrow. He could tell she was depressed. Hibari looked down at her. "Get off." This was really getting tiresome.

In response, she clung onto him tighter and wouldn't let go. "No, I… I have to tell you something…"

"I'll bite you to death if you don't get off me immediately."

Instead, she rolled up her sleeve and showed him her bare arm. She was seemingly glaring at him, though her eyes were a bit red and watery. He felt something strange course through his system again when she had looked back up at him with that expression, eye to eye. It was just like those other times when he'd start feeling nauseous and those stupid 'pink' feelings, only this time, it felt worse. He felt worse than before; no, it wasn't sparked off because she wasn't wearing a yukata this time, or her pyjamas, or his pyjamas, or her school uniform, it was just her everyday clothing and it…. It was somehow beginning to overpower him; this strange sensation that fired in his veins like searing fire, some kind of… desire… yes, he had a lukewarm desire, yet he'd tried to resist. He refused to give in to them – they were unnecessary, a hindrance – that is, those emotions he felt, they were stupid and insignificant; but Kiriyuu was here, and they were at such proximity. Everything seemed to blur and he clenched his eyes shut. Damn it. They were alone, in this tiny cubicle with the pouring rain outside which wouldn't be stopping any time soon.

She was giving him a weird look now, it even seemed like she was giving him a dirty look. Of course, she didn't know what was going through his mind; he would always be an enigma, unpredictable and relentless as always. Kiriyuu continued with what she was going to say anyway despite the fact that she didn't think that Hibari was listening to her properly.

"Go on then, bite me! Bite me like the vampire you are, Hibari! Lonesome, pale-looking Hibari cooped up within his castle-like, traditional citadel of a house with a storm cloud over it almost every day! Go on and - "

He wasn't listening; his eyes focused on her moving lips; those sweet, saccharine pink lips. All he wanted were those lips. Uh-oh. Damn it damn it damn it. Dare he say it; he was now suffering some kind of inner conflict over self-control and dominance. Well, Hibari was still human. And it wasn't helping that Kiriyuu had also raised her voice to him, yelling at him as she always seemed to do; he still wasn't listening – everything all seemingly garbled and warped. He grabbed her and –

"OW!!" She shrieked as she felt a sharp nip over her skin; Hibari was biting her!!! In the neck?! Ow, it felt like hell, really. She certainly hadn't accounted for the unprovoked attack - his arms had suddenly seized hold of her, wouldn't let her go, and his hair was then tickling the nape of her neck.

She felt her skin freed from the nip of his teeth a few seconds later. Wow, he really did almost bite her to death; he could've, if he bit into an artery and bust it. Well, he also could've done something worse than that. Hibari wasn't letting go, but he wasn't biting her either; it was like a slight nibble, and then it got - Kiriyuu's eyes widened momentarily - his lips were suddenly finding their way up her neck to the outline of her jaw. She stammered a little, paling slightly, even. "Hibari – what're you…? Let… let go…"

He still didn't let go.

"Hibari, stop it."

He was almost to her lips; she swallowed down and her eyes clenched shut; she could feel his warm breath burning over the fresh contours of her lips; his hand brushed her hair up, tilting her face up to him. She swallowed again; this was so un-like Hibari – in fact, it was so un-like him that it scared her. It wasn't too late to start hoping that Hibari had a twin brother. Kiriyuu felt her head spin, round, round and round. She must be going insane, yes, that must be it. Hibari, showing affection?! Hah! Kiriyuu must've been descending into madness. Everything that was happening… n-no way…. It couldn't be. Perhaps too good to be true for reality. Yeah… Hibari having a twin brother would be too good to be true…. Ahaha… haha… ha.

_I'm going insane._ She thought, blinking stupidly. "What are you doing?" She managed to squawk out, stammering somewhat, trying to pry him off.

"… Isn't this what you always wanted?" He said instead, murmuring over her cold, exposed skin, sending chills down her spine.

Oh god oh god. Had someone turned up an oven or heater in here or what? It was positively getting -gulp- hawt!! The glass wasn't steaming just yet, but Kiriyuu felt like she was shrivelling up like a prune in an onsen. She stopped once his words registered through her mind. _Isn't this… what I… __**wanted**__…?_ Kiriyuu squirmed under him; still struggling. No, this wasn't what she wanted. So what if she thought that Hibari was a delightfully sexy beast and she thought that girls would kill just for a brief smirk from his devilishly handsome face? She didn't want _this_ from him. She didn't want someone to be offering affection just because she wanted to know that someone liked her that badly – She froze, letting him ravish the nape of her neck, the current area of his attention at the moment.

Hibari hadn't understood her feelings for him at all.

She wasn't… yearning after him THAT badly that she was desperate for any signs of affection, as he sort of put it out by what he had said. No, it wasn't that at all! Hibari…. didn't understand. And he wasn't giving in.

"Stop it!"

He pulled away from her first, but his arms remained tangled around her, he was somewhat breathless, and brushed a hand through his hair, trying to speculate what exactly had gotten over him. Normally, he would NEVER have done that. This moment would perhaps burn in his mind as a bad reminder of when he let loose all his morals. Kiriyuu watched him silently in shock; he then wiped his lips with his sleeve. He looked away from her. He seemed rather startled at what he had just been doing. Her lip wobbled as she looked at the ground. There was an awkward silence in the atmosphere.

"_**You bit me!**_ W-What was all that for…?" She squeaked out, her face going undoubtedly red at his random sign of 'affection'. It really scared her, actually.

He didn't look at her. "….You wouldn't shut up."

She felt as if another tonne of bricks had fallen on her. She sighed, smoothed her hair back. "I… I can't believe you. I can't believe you did that just because you thought you **had** to. Do you really think I'm such a sad, lonely, desperate person?"

Hm…. He did vaguely recount her reading a book called 'Fairytales for the Single, Lonely and Desperate' once… He watched her, waited for her to continue and explain more. Instead, she got up, pushed past him and opened the door just a tiny bit and shimmied through, then slammed it shut behind her.

Okay, he was completely lost. Really. And she apparently said **he** was an enigma. She was even worse. "Get back here." He called after her calmly as he rose up from his spot, watching her retreating back. He _had_ listened to what she said, and she was wrong. He didn't do that because he knew she liked him so much, and he had to do something for her in return. No, Hibari never did anybody favours. He did favours whenever he felt like it. And he did feel like it back then, but it also wasn't a 'favour'.

She was wrong. She was_ so_ wrong about him.

………………

The quest for a runaway Kiriyuu started all over again, much to Hibari's growing impatience. This stupid girl was going to be the death of him (har har). It seemed like some kind of cat and mouse chase between them half the time. Only this time, it was extreme, like a needle in a haystack.

"Hibari-san!!!"

Oh great, Sawada Tsuna and his fiendish gang just had to get involved, too. How come everything about Kiriyuu ended up with everyone Hibari partially hated being involved? Was she really such a great person that she had friends to back her up whenever and whatever happened? Yeah, she did. The current Vongola generation consisting of Tsuna etc really were good people. God bless 'em.

"What do you want?"

"Kiriyuu – She – I mean – Ka-powie - In the kitchen – Lambo went 'peeeow' and I was like 'NoooOOoooo - ! Toilet – mirror – sausages! CHEESE!!!"

Oooh, nothing like a good game of charades and a horde of random words being thrown at him at this particular moment in which Hibari was ready to shred any poor sod who dared step up to him limb from limb. Tsuna was squawking in broken up sentences, then he began spluttering and stumbling over his words that Hibari didn't even bother to listen to him anymore. Gokudera was busy rubbing his back as Tsuna struggled to breathe properly, his other hand holding the umbrella. This guy was too proactive and squawky for his own good.

"What Tsuna's trying to say is that Kiriyuu's been acting strange, and we – " Yamamoto's hood was thoroughly covering his eyes but he could suddenly sense that Hibari was purposely glaring at him. Oh, he probably wasn't helping the situation. Besides, there were rumours that Hibari was possibly jealous of Yamamoto at some point…. Although it was highly unlikely.

"What are you guys doing?" An impatient voice (not Hibari's, beside it belonged to a girl) sounded off from their right.

Everyone stopped. She was standing opposite them in the street Hibari was searching through; she stopped at about a five feet distance apart from the group. She watched them through the rain; silly Hibari, she thought, he was still going on without an umbrella again as usual while she was standing with one. The only thing she could hear was not the sounding of rushing droplets of water splashing around her, but the sound of her beating heart. This was probably it. Another goodbye, only this time, it was for good.

"Kiriyuu, _what are you doing_?!" Tsuna squawked again. "We're worried about you!"

She rolled her eyes; she had called Guiseppe a few minutes ago and he would be collecting her at the bus terminal in a few minutes time, too. "….. I'm sorry, but I have to go."

There was a brief silence.

"….H-Huh?" This came from Tsuna and Yamamoto. "No, you don't have to go. Just tell us what's going on. We'll help you." Yamamoto began, but Kiriyuu wasn't having any of it.

"…. I knew you wouldn't understand." She began first; hopefully her voice was loud enough in this dread downpour for Hibari to hear her. She turned back to the rest of them now, addressing them all. "The only thing I can do to make things right is to _leave_." They continued watching her silently. "Goodbye, Hibari. Goodbye Tsuna, Yamamoto, Gokudera. Thank you for your hospitality, but I'm leaving Namimori, and I'm never coming back. It was nice meeting you." Kiriyuu decided that she was going to leave Namimori whether or not Hibari wanted her to stay.

This wasn't about him anymore; it was about her now. She had to leave anyway sooner, or later. It might as well be now, especially since she'd just found out what would happen a decade later. She didn't want to say goodbye to Tsuna and the rest; and she'd prioritised a few of her objectives for the moment; the first was her death in 10 years time, which she was aiming to prevent by avoiding the Vongola, especially Hibari, from now on. Second, she didn't want to go against the Vongola and become the Millefiore, either, so she would avoid her own family, too.

The third was Elia.

Kiriyuu was moving to the Kokuyo Precinct, where Guiseppe and Elia were residing for temporary. _I'm going to save you too, Elia. I don't want you to get mixed with the Millefiore._

Meanwhile, Hibari knew that she was serious, and that surprised him once more. Kiriyuu's personality had been switching back and forth so much these days he couldn't keep up. She wasn't cheerful or her pretty annoying self. She was rather quiet and… compliant. This had been going on for so long, and she still wouldn't tell him, in fact – she wouldn't tell anyone, and now she was leaving them without a single explanation?(!)

"Kiriyuu, why are you doing this?!" Yamamoto yelled through the rain; he was actually starting to sound…. angry.

"Hibari, it's just a misunderstanding! Do something!" Tsuna was screaming once more; he ultimately wished that Reborn was here; but nom Reborn was the one who told Tsuna to go himself. He'd said "_As Tenth Boss of the Vongola, it is your duty to retain potential loyal subjects_". But… Reborn could do something to help... He did it the last time. He could do it again, right?! No, Tsuna realised, he couldn't always be dependent on Reborn. He had to do this himself. "Hibari-san, do something before Kiriyuu leaves _again_!"

Oh, how much Hibari wanted to clobber Sawada, who was shrieking like a harpy beside him, but he knew he was right.

"No, Tsuna, just leave it." Yamamoto began instead; Gokudera looked at him, slightly surprised. "If Kiriyuu doesn't value us as friends at all, that she won't even bother to tell us anything, then…. _Fine_."

Tsuna was just as astounded as Gokudera was at Yamamoto's sudden change in attitude. "Yamamoto… I-I don't think this is Kiriyuu's fault..." Tsuna swallowed; watching Kiriyuu as she stared back at them unresponsively. Why was this happening…?

"…." Yamamoto looked down. "…. She knows that she can tell us anything. We're friends." He dug his hands further into his pockets. He was hurt. He was hurt as well.

Tsuna looked back to his front. _But…. Maybe not everything…?_

Hibari remained silent. She really was leaving for good; that was how irresponsible she was. She had him practically left in the dust; he didn't know why she had suddenly decided to leave. Do something, Hibari thought to himself, he had to do something, but what? What would he do? What should he say? He had something to tell her, he wanted to… he wanted to hold her back, and yell at her that she could tell him what was going on, and that her real home was with him and wasn't back to wherever she belonged, but that was it. That was the problem all along. There had been a lack of communication. He didn't know Kiriyuu's background.

He walked up to her. She frowned at him.

"……"

Kiriyuu pursed her bottom lip at him. "Okay, fine. I'll wait. But first, why don't you, at least, be courteous and answer one of the questions I have always wanted to ask you?" She demanded impatiently at him.

"Such as?"

"Tell me."

He didn't even blink. "Tell you 'what'?"

"…Please… tell me if you like me." She then looked down at the floor, her expression softening, almost sad, slightly wistful. "….Please. I… I want to know. Don't lie to yourself here. Don't be so stubborn just because you're called Hibari Kyouya, Head Prefect. Having someone, especially a girl, who you regard as extremely important in your life doesn't mean that you're a weak person who submits themselves to emotions and let them rule their life."

She wanted him to at least give her a reason to stay. She was still hopeful. She said all those things yet she secretly wanted someone aside from Tsuna and the rest to want her to stay, but…

_Help me, Hibari!_ She thought desperately, _Give me a reason to stay! Just say anything and I'll stay!! Please...!_

"….. What on earth are you rambling about?" His eyes narrowed clearly. He didn't want another boring, dramatic monologue of hers about feelings and all that stupid gunk that hardly make his time worthwhile. He would rather pull out the hidden chain of his tonfas and skip down the road with it than listen to another lecture from the likes of Kiriyuu. As if standing in the middle of the pouring rain in an empty street wasn't melodramatic enough. It was so typical of her to get the emotions the best of _her_. She was far too _reactive _to her emotions, not proactive, and that was why she would always be weak.

Her next reaction was not so predictable, however. Her eyebrows creased upwards into an expression of sadness as her mouth opened and closed, wanting to get a word out in edgeways but nothing came until she sniffed, put a hand over her mouth. But then -

"…. _What_?" She squeaked out, still staring at him with her mouth slightly agape, but then she let out a throaty chuckle, slapped a hand across her forehead. Her expression thoroughly darkened once more. "Of course." She crossed her arms and stood back up straight. "You and your stupid pride always comes first… I'll tell you something, Hibari. You're going to end up all alone in your goddamn life -- because you refuse to crawl out of that weird, invisible shell or-or barrier that you always put up around yourself. You never open yourself to others; you're honest, but when it comes to some things…. You're _not_."

Hibari stood back; why the hell was he wasting valuable time listening to this lecture? If she didn't like him the way he was, then fine.

"I don't even know what you're thinking of half the time. Sometimes I even wonder if you have little aliens in that brain of yours telling you what to do. What are you so afraid of anyway? … And you're wrong. You are so wrong, that it makes me laugh." She spat at him, with a hint of a bemused smirk tugging at her lips. "I don't 'pine' for you _that _much. I don't _want _you that badly that I needed you to show affection even though you don't like it. In fact, I think it's the other way round now." Her smirk widened considerably.

Hibari felt a vein pop. He'd actually shut himself off from her stupid banters until this point. Attacks and insults to his dignity and self-being were extremely hazardous as a factor that increased his anger scale all the boiling point up to 100 degrees Celsius, and even more. It was amazing that she hadn't been sent spiralling towards the moon with ten thousand bruises - yet.

She had accounted for a tonfa to come charging at her, yet she just watched him, with that smug smile on her face as she redeemed that she had gotten the last laugh, standing her ground. When the inevitable blow never came, she blinked, looked at him. The tonfa was in mid-air, the rounded end just a centimetre hovering in front of her face. Hibari watched her wordlessly, his eyes training on the side of her face. His hand tightened around the cool steel of his tonfa, and Kiriyuu looked at him expectantly, then -

She gasped.

A hidden blade at the end of the tonfa had ejected out without warning, dug into the lower half of her cheek, and her body jerked somewhat in response, as Kiriyuu stared at him with that stunned expression on her face. He didn't stop there - Hibari whipped his tonfa further down with a smooth flick of his arm in a matter of seconds, slicing the thin knife cleanly down her jaw. When he pulled out, she stumbled on her spot in progress, her eyes wide as a burning sensation coursed through her entire system.

Tsuna and Yamamoto were left gawking, even Gokudera, the cigarette falling out of his mouth, as Kiriyuu's shaking hand unconsciously moved up to the searing raw wound. She brought her hand back down. Blood. _Blood_. Lots and lots of blood.

"That was punishment." He said, as he retreated the tonfa away, and he withdrew the blade back inside his tonfa with the press of a button. "… Leave Namimori if you wish. But wherever you go, and whoever you meet, you must remember that you belong to me. You will _**always**_ belong to me."

She stared back at him incredulously as blood dripped from the wound, her face fiercely flushing in shock, anger, and disbelief. But then the shocked look turned into one of anger; she gave him one last glare, before turning away from them all and ran, ran away, anywhere but here. She sniffed meekly, wiped at her eyes, mingling tears with blood.

Hibari watched her back disappear. And then he turned back round, walked back towards the direction of his house, completely ignoring Tsuna and Yamamoto. He had realised that he didn't know anything about her at all, yet even though they shared so much time together, and they were supposedly cousins and they lived together, did homework together, did the chores together, ate dinner together… the Kiriyuu he saw everyday was probably just a façade. What he saw just there was an obnoxious, arrogant little punk – like those stupid senior students he had to beat up everyday at school.

Kiriyuu had changed. The distance between them had been growing wider and wider as the days passed ever since her godfather came, and now, the distance was so far from one another that…

He knew he just…

_Couldn't._

He couldn't keep her with him anymore.

… He let her leave.

But he had the last laugh.

Kiriyuu belonged to him now.

Whether she liked it or not.


	31. Soliloquy

This is me trying to write about other characters; it really is stiff, and limp. Unfortunately, the next 5 chapters or so after this one are probably going to be all Kiriyuu-centric. A rather poetic chapter title today, too.

**Chapter 31**

_Soliloquy of the Damned_

**Hibari's Day**

A morbid kitchen timer began to chime continuously through the quiet, distil atmosphere of the residence once the large hand of Hibari's archetypal clock struck '12'.

The house felt eerily empty and hollow, the only sound of the alarm clock ringing through seemed to bring the life back. It was 7am; the time when Hibari would get out of bed and resume his normal morning Wallace-and-Gromit-but-not-so-spectacular-as-Wallace-and-Gromit-getting-ready regime. It did not involve flume rides, special gadgets, tea or toast and flashy buttons – all he did was trudge out of bed in his pyjamas and enter the bathroom on his left, just a few steps away from his room.

He passed Kiriyuu's room on the way.

Of course, it was empty, devoid of that annoying and weird Italian shampoo smell she usually used in the morning for her hair. He'd come back home yesterday and just walked calmly to the kitchen after taking off his shoes; he opened one of the cupboards and took the keys from the back and marched up the stairs. At first, he hesitated outside her door, and he rolled his eyes. It felt stupid, and dumb; standing outside someone's room when that person no longer lived there anymore. He opened the door and realised it was stripped barren and cleared of a girl's presence. He was also hit with a blast of fresh air; and not the Kiriyuu-smell. Everything was gone. Her suitcase, her clothes on the floor, her socks, her shoes, her homework. She had left. She hadn't bothered to tidy up her unmade bed, either. The window was opened slightly, the curtains billowing gently in the breeze. She hadn't left a note or anything before she'd left.

Hibari had stood there quietly for a few moments, then closed the window, turned back around and shut the door behind him, locked the door. Then he went down the stairs. All her shoes were missing, so was her school coat. In the kitchen, her laundry wasn't in the basket and even the doggie plate was gone from the kitchen dish stand. It felt as though Kiriyuu had never been living with him for the past half year. It was like she was some kind of ghost.

A memory.

Or perhaps not.

It became the storeroom, once more. It would be unused, unacknowledged, unrecognised of ever being the headquarters to a member of his opposite sex. He realised that there never had been a person called Ottuso Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole who had lived with him.

Well…. So be it.

After brushing his teeth (Kiriyuu's toothbrush was gone), he went to wash to his face with his flannel (Kiriyuu's flannel was gone), then he went to dry his hands with his towel (Kiriyuu's towel was gone, too); he left the bathroom, back to his bedroom. He pulled out a clean white shirt and his school trousers, put those on, did his tie neatly.

Once he had finished getting dressed, he lumbered downstairs after closing the door behind him. At the kitchen, he did the first thing any person would do – processed the password into his fridge opened the door. Hmm, it was stacked from bottom up with groceries Kiriyuu had bought yesterday in the right chronological food order, and by colour too. At least she had bothered to do something right in her life. He pulled out the new carton of milk, and the soft margarine. He would go for a plain breakfast today. He usually had plain breakfasts before she arrived; when she did arrive, breakfast became more elaborate, with Spanish omelette, bacon and muesli on several occasions.

But today, Hibari really wanted something normal – what he had before in his life – and put the kettle on, dumped a teabag into his cup, rammed two pieces of bread into the toaster. Waited patiently. 1 second passed… 2… 3… 4… He noticed the hairpin sitting on the counter. It was the one he'd given her during the Summer Festival. He scooped it up, felt the cool, sleek metal and stared at it for a few seconds.

The toaster pinged.

Again, unlike most people's houses and typical household appliances, Hibari's were somewhat… authentic yet revolutionary. He put the pin down, pulled out the newly-made toast out, slid them onto a plate and cleared his hand of crumbs. He picked up a knife and mercilessly scooped margarine over the crusty surface, letting the golden spread sink into the fresh roast. The kettle then popped; he poured the water in, swirled the teabag around before pulling it out and dumping it into a spare dish. He added a small amount of sugar in. With his breakfast made, he made his way to the table, looked opposite, at the empty chair.

Well, at least a certain girl with horrible eating habits wouldn't put him off his food today.

…………

School was getting repetitive.

Walking. He walked to school all the time. It was good exercise and good for the environment. But nobody really seems to care about the environment these days, right? A theory Kiriyuu once told him of how the world would end was that all the fossil fuels would be used up and then they'd be an ice age, destroying all life on earth. Then a few million years later, organisms would thrive again and eventually evolving back into people, like some kind of never-ending circle. Ah, who cares? Hibari arrived at school ten minutes after leaving the house; forty minutes before the bell rang. And Prefect duties began riiiiiight…. Now. He swapped his shoes with his indoor ones, put them away in the locker, made a quick inspection of the front hall, then made his way up to reception. The book was open, and he signed himself in, before checking the remaining surnames of his subordinates on yesterday's list. Yagami forgot to sign off again, the twit.

After that was finished, Hibari resumed in finishing off the rest of his duties that were due to be done before school started; he checked all the files of potential rule-breakers and those needed to be bitten to death – just in case anyone had misplaced anything or taken it out for reference and hadn't put it back. So far, so good. Okay, so discipline here was administered successfully. Next, he checked the library records of the school; the librarian always provided the committee with the records each day. A few overdue books; hmm, he would hunt them down one by one and oversee punishment today after school.

With all the names and their respective class numbers on a death-list, he looked at the school council motions from the meeting yesterday. Hmm, someone was complaining about the girl's bathroom locks on the ground floor. Another person said couples were displaying too much intimacy in corridors during lunchtimes, others said they had spotted students canoodling in between classes. Well, let's put a stop to that, shall we? Hibari wrote the names down again on the death-list.

He then opened the records of all students in Namimori which the receptionist also kindly provided him with. He went to Kiriyuu's record, pulled it out and flipped it open. She hadn't provided a photo, but all her details were down – all in Italian.

He frowned, folded the file back in half and walked to the shredder, switched it on.

………..

Yawn.

Hibari realised that school seemed lacking without Kiriyuu. Before Kiriyuu came, well… he couldn't really remember what school had actually been like. No, he wasn't going to start fawning over the girl and wishing that she would come back because he terribly missed her; school just **did **seem different without her presence here.

He frowned; he didn't find beating up those who needed to be bitten to death partially amusing anymore – nor was it a proper way to fully vent out the built-up frustration and anger he was feeling at the moment.

This was his last duty of the day, track down the people bumping chalk from random classrooms after school and administer their punishment then (he found out that the chalk the school incorporated was actually made out of a strange addictive material and students were crushing them and sniffing them up the nose with straws). He deposited the last of the chalk-snorters into a pile in the middle of the courtyard ready for the janitor to sweep up and crossed it off his list. No mercy was shown as usual, no matter how much they begged and pleaded him that they just needed rehab and they would never do it again – instead, their punishment was even worse. He'd crushed their noses and chins, watched a mixture of blood and molars flying out; he made sure their arms and ever finger bone was broken so they could never steal and sniff chalk ever again.

He relaxed, flopped against the wall, breathing heavily. He brushed a hand through his hair, and shook his other clean of blood. He had actually thrown his tonfas to the side and thought it was more satisfying to beat them up with his fists. He didn't feel any pain, surprisingly enough, even though one hand seemed a bit limp.

The day had gone by excruciatingly _slow_. He'd successfully not seen that Sawada Tsuna and the rest of his annoying cronies surprisingly for that whole school day. He looked up and around, at the gate – that was where Kiriyuu would wait for him usually after school. The school was empty; it was about 4pm by now.

Oh well, time to go home.

It was roughly 5pm when someone knocked on the front gate. He'd just come home from a school day that mostly compromised of beating up anyone who asked him about why Kiriyuu wasn't at school, and then he had been doing his homework up until then. The knocking on the front gate had been going on for more than five minutes, sounded much more frantic now. Tiredly, Hibari tore his eyes from his homework and went out of the house, crossed the lawn, and then opened the gate.

He hadn't been expecting Kenji the Caretaker; with a petite girl standing beside him. This girl had black hair to her shoulders, her eyes were a dull greyish-cobalt colour, unusually slanted, yet she was smiling politely up at him. She was wearing a Namimori school uniform, her hand encased around a battered up suitcase, a teddy-bear rucksack slung over her shoulder. The caretaker, on the other hand, looked ridiculously confused and befuddled, as he passed a look from Hibari, then to the girl, and back to Hibari, who raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"Anou, Hibari-san, where's Kiriyuu-chan?"

A vein popped. Hibari, surprisingly and calmly, inhaled it in. He was tired. "She's gone. Anyone who speaks that name will be severely punished." He said, somewhat relaxed, his hand clenching the grip of his tonfa that was concealed within his sleeve.

"U-Uh, s-sorry, Hibari-san… Anyway, um…." Kenji seemed to telepathically understand what Hibari was thinking of at the moment; it wasn't really hard, because it was easy to know when Hibari was pissed off. The caretaker began to sweat a little. "Hibari-san… This is your…. _**Other**_… uh, cousin. From… Hokkaido. Her Japanese is…" Kenji stopped; he was actually experiencing a severe case of déjà vu.

"…. Cousin?" Hibari unfolded his arms out from over his chest. What the hell was going on? This girl was his cousin????

"Yes, her name is – ah…uh…." Kenji took out a piece of paper, put on his respectful spectacles and once again, flashed Hibari a look as if 'this had happened before'. It certainly had, actually. "It's… well….

_What? Something like Osutto Kiyiruu Cockatrice Nicole? _Hibari burst out of his thoughts instantaneously, looked up.

Kenji hadn't spoken her name out at all and was still scrutinising the piece of paper. Dare he say it – Hibari had been thinking that her name would be something along the lines like Osutto Kiyiruu Cockatrice Nicole; but it probably wasn't. Hn. Hibari didn't want to rely on imagination much.

The girl spoke instead. "Kusanagi Hiroyuki. But everyone calls me 'Ryuki'."

There was an uncomfortable silence for no reason. What she had said was perfectly normal. Kenji blinked, put down the paper, and watched her with his mouth hanging slightly open in a severe uncouth fashion. They both waited for more information to come. A few moments passed. _Awkward_ moments. She never mentioned any middle names.

The girl had spoke up again, with a thick, Hokkaido accent, as she looked from Kenji, to Hibari. "I'm your mother's third sister's husband's brother-in-law's second wife's daughter."

Another silence. Kenji scratched his head. Eh? Hibari then shot her a sour look. "Why didn't I receive any prior notice of this?"

The girl returned an apologetic look. "Mou…. My family are pretty unorganised, ehehe…. I _AM_ related to you anyway, not exactly **blood-related**, but still related." She giggled, while Hibari and Kenji exchanged '_WTF_' looks. "Can I stay with you then? It's all part of my assignment."

Hibari's eye twitched, then –

"No."

And he slammed the door shut in front of their faces.

* * *

**Tsuna's Day**

* * *

Explaining Kiriyuu's departure had been really hard for Tsuna, especially explaining it to Kyoko, Haru, Bianchi, and Reborn. He shivered as he recounted yesterday's events; what Hibari did to her really scared him. He wondered how Kiriyuu was doing now, with a new additional feature on her face.

Yamamoto was seemingly irritated at the girl for leaving for no explanation herself (what? Yamamoto, irritated? Well, he was human too, no matter how goofy and oblivious he was to the whole mafia thing); he thought that they were good friends enough that she would be able to tell them. Gokudera didn't seem to care much that Kiriyuu was gone; they didn't really get on well together anyway. Reborn on the other hand, was giving Tsuna a testifying look. Oh, if only Reborn had been with Tsuna and the others back that day. Maybe he could've helped; he was the one who was able to persuade Kiriyuu to stay the last time. What was worse was that Tsuna felt everyone was looking at him to explain what happened to Kiriyuu.

But…. _Why?_

"Because…. She is one of us."

Tsuna blinked, turned to Reborn, who was feeding Leon a bit of avocado maki. They were at Yamamoto's father's sushi restaurant for a quick meal after school. Only this time, Kyoko and Haru were the extra guests, who were busy snacking on their own chicken katsu bento box.

"What do you mean by 'one of us', Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked, squished beside Yamamoto who was looking out of the window while Tsuna sat opposite him with Kyoko and Haru.

Reborn replied, "Well, she is a Vongola."

This came from everyone except from Yamamoto, Kyoko and Haru: "EH?!"

"Reborn-san, what do you mean by that?" Gokudera asked, clearly perplexed, while Yamamoto had been unusually quiet for a long time.

It was quite surprising how no-one really understood what he meant by that. He thought it was quite obvious by now; the fact that Kiriyuu had been hanging around them ever since she came to Namimori (which was quite a long time ago), and everything that she went through, she went through with them, right?

"We need her. She is one of our friends, and as a friend, we have a responsibility to look after subordinates. We should find out what happened to her when she was hit by the bazooka."

"…. But no-one came in her place. And Kiriyuu wasn't issued with an entry test like Yamamoto-kun..." Tsuna replied, "Besides… she's with the Giglio Nero family."

"So… where's Kiriyuu-chan now, Tsuna-kun?" Kyoko asked him instead, and Tsuna went awry with words.

"Well – I don't – she left – Hibari, he – Her face - " Another game of charades and random words. Tsuna gave up, and sighed inwardly.

He thought about Kiriyuu – Kiriyuu… in the Vongola family? Really? Was it possible? But what would her family say? They were on the same status of the Vongola, right? Then what would happen? Would the Giglio Nero let Kiriyuu enter the Vongola just like that? Not that Tsuna would mind if Kiriyuu became a member of the family. Heck, what were Kiriyuu's potential skills? Okay, she was a sniper. Gokudera used bombs, Yamamoto was a swordsman, Tsuna…. Eh… never mind him for the moment… What else could Kiriyuu do??

Perhaps the most important aspect was that Kiriyuu had already left before the opportunity to bestow her with the opportunity to join ranks with the Vongola; and _somehow,_ this felt like it was Tsuna's entire fault. He'd let Kiriyuu leave; Reborn had entrusted Tsuna, as Tenth boss of the Vongola, with a responsibility even though he never mentioned it.

"It was a task to retain a future potential candidate for the Vongola." Reborn eventually said, thus doubling Tsuna's guilt. "Oh well, time to move on. I will look into another latent individual." Then Leon promptly turned into a pair of binoculars and Reborn scoped the room.

Tsuna bit his lip, looked down at his lap. He really was feeling guilty.

* * *

**Spanner's Day**

* * *

Spanner blinked.

Kiriyuu's diary had a new entry in. It did not have one before. Wow, solid evidence of inter-spacial time-warping…. Whatever the hell that meant. Something to do with changing the future anyway. He wouldn't give it much thought, nor would he turn this piece of potential time-travelling evidence to the authorities. No, saving Kiriyuu would be his little secret. Her ashes were given to her Guiseppe, put on a mantelpiece back in Genoa, beside her ancestors, her mother and father. It was a cold day and he'd stopped production for the time being, using the day off to brew green tea and huddle in his sleeping bag while hunched over a girl's diary. He was still reading it… well; this would be the second time he would be reading it. It was _that_ amusing. Anyway, he looked at the new entry, checked the calendar; this was written the day before, 10 years ago. He scanned the paragraphs:

_I've left Namimori. I think Yamamoto and Tsuna are angry at me for not providing a reason, but I can't tell them that I'm going to join with a rival family and trying to practically kill them so I'm never going back and I can't care less because I can't tell them. I can't tell anyone. They won't believe me and think I'm insane. But that doesn't mean I'm going back to the Giglio Nero, either. I… don't know where I'm going to go, but all I know is that I want to live, and by doing that, I can successfully avoid the Vongola and the Giglio Nero._

_I've also taken a souvenir; Hibari thought it was compulsory to 'mark' me before I left. He cut me across the face, my left cheek. It hurts like hell, and people give me weird looks. I look ugly and I absolutely him. Now nobody will ever want me!!!!! (What's worse is that that's what he wants. Stupid Hibari!!!!!). _

_I don't care if Spanner is reading this either and laughing his head off at a miserable little girl with a disfigured cheek. Hey, if you really are reading this, I have something I want to say to you too, punk! _

He looked at the bottom half of the page, which featured a whole horde of obscenities all about the Giglio Nero and him (well, just a small fraction). Spanner sighed, closed the diary. Uh oh.

She left.

She had left Namimori. Somehow, this felt like his fault now. What he was trying to prevent was actually happening… and it was all because he interfered, and told her. Maybe if he hadn't, she would've stayed in Namimori. Well, maybe not. She probably still would've left Namimori too for whatever reason, like her failing relationship with Hibari. No-one told Kiriyuu to leave Namimori, but… after finding out that horrible truth; you couldn't blame her for taking this drastic action.

He rubbed his temples. Ah, what would his mentor say at a time like this…?

_Spanner! You idiot!!! I'm going to die again because of you!!_

Argh. No, that was what the ghost of TYL Kiriyuu would say. What would his _mentor _say?

_**Just sit back, take off your underpants and relax, then finish off your cup noodle.**_

Really? That still sounded a bit strange. He listened to his inner mentor once more.

_**Besides, I'm pretty sure that girl knows what she's doing even if looks bad, so don't worry.**_

Hmm. His mentor's voice echoed thoroughly, and he shrugged, sat back, relaxed, and picked up his cup noodle beside him.

* * *

**Kiriyuu's Day**

* * *

Kiriyuu was in the future. Kiriyuu was still 14 years old.

But Hibari wasn't.

He was 25; everything Kiriyuu imagined he would be. His hair would be long and he would smell of musky cologne – Dolce and Gabbana for men, mmmmm. He would be adorned in a smart dinner jacket, swirling a glass of red wine in his hand. They were in some fancy restaurant, sitting at a table facing opposite each other. Kiriyuu was in her usual attire; a checked shirt, white top underneath stopping at quarter arm length, dark blue denims and boots. Hardly the proper clothing to be wearing for a posh dinner in some popular town.

But that wasn't just it, someone was sitting to her right, Hibari's left. A woman. Kiriyuu couldn't pinpoint what she looked like – the woman represented something; everything Kiriyuu wanted to be in the future – tall, beautiful, great hourglass figure, thin thighs and forearms, dark hair, peach lips. A smile cracked over this woman's lips, she was talking – Kiriyuu didn't notice, just the woman's slender hand – and the woman turned, smiled again, then she properly showed Kiriyuu her hand.

A ring.

Hibari had given this woman a ring. They were together. Engaged. Married? She didn't know, but…

_But I'm supposed to be with Hibari._

"Not anymore." The mysterious woman had spoken; another smile.

And Kiriyuu thought a knife had ripped through her, stabbed the heart.

………

She woke up.

Not to Elia's spare and annoying chicken alarm clock, but the dream. Just at the right time, too. Kiriyuu didn't think she could continue on with it – fine-dining with Hibari and his new 'wife'. Oh gawd, no. It was JUST a dream however, but still. The thought persisted. It was possible that Hibari would move on, now that Kiriyuu was gone. She had never thought about rivals. She never realised that Hibari looked at any other girl for all that mattered, either. Or did he? And maybe just after Kiriyuu left, some girl decided to move on to him? But what about Hibari himself? Would he move on? Probably. Hibari never dwelled on things.

_Suck it up. I decided to leave. Whoever Hibari wants to go with is none of my concern anymore._

But… Imagine getting hit by the bazooka only to realise that Hibari was with another woman in the future… It made Kiriyuu sniffle somewhat, and she rubbed at her eyes. They were watering somewhat. She slipped off the bed and held her head in her hands, hitting against the plaster in progress ever-so-slightly by accident. She winced. "Ow." She forgot about the scar, and she lifted her head back up, stared at reflection in the mirror just on the vanity desk across from her in her new bedroom.

Kiriyuu felt ugly.

She would be forever scarred, she knew. It was Hibari all along. He ruined her life. He scarred her. He was the one who did that to her. She'd made her way yesterday night to the nearest pharmacy and bought as many cotton wool dressings as she could, and a roll of plaster tape. Despite concerned shoppers asking if she wanted to go to hospital, she promptly refused. She ripped a square piece of wool and attached over the burning wound, then sello-taped the plaster over the wool onto her face, too. Urgh. She looked hideous. And it was all Hibari's fault.

She wondered how Ryohei could wear a plaster over his nose yet he'd look cool. Here she was with a plaster and she looked dumb.

Guiseppe came to collect her at the bus stop to Kokuyo; almost received a heart attack at the sight of her. Kiriyuu didn't tell Guiseppe what she had found out when she got hit by the bazooka, heck, getting hit the bazooka wasn't even brought up in any conversation; she successfully convinced Guiseppe NOT to kill Hibari. He had parked his car in the bus station parking lot and helped Kiriyuu put her suitcase into the trunk; she sat in the front, as he revved the car engine, drove out of Namimori. They arrived at the outskirts; Kokuyo was really just a small, unpopular neighbourhood beside Namimori, with unpopular-designed old-fashioned houses, and a derelict, unpopular Sanitarium beside an equally derelict, perhaps unpopular Entertainment Park called 'Kokuyo Resort'. She had heard stories about that place; it supposedly featured a zoo, bowling alley, cinema, many more which Kiriyuu couldn't care less about. It was also supposedly infested with ghosts now of previous mental patients from the asylum. Apparently, the ghosts also leaked to the Resort, too.

Guiseppe and Elia were renting a small, three bedroom house just down the street from Kokuyo High; the school Elia was attending at the moment. The pair had returned to Italy after visiting Kiriyuu back during the summer, but then they came back, residing in Kokuyo because Guiseppe had volunteered to carry out a few jobs for the Giglio Nero that would span for about a period of three months.

The house they were provided with wasn't as elaborate as Hibari's house, but it wasn't too bad either; they had no garden, well, if _that_'s what you call a garden (notice the emphasis on 'that'). It was a small bungalow with the three tiny bedrooms. The walls were brick brown and the layout was a lot less open-spaced than Hibari's house. The bungalow was actually a typical villa, with a kitchen 'outside', only attached to the house if you pulled the metal shutters over it. The bathroom was beside the kitchen just a corridor away, taking the form of a separated room the size of Kiriyuu's old room in Hibari's house. There was no bath or sink. The 'bath' was actually just a block of hollowed out marble on the ground, like a shower floor, but missing the walls and the shower in general. Kiriyuu wondered how she would bathe in that. Maybe huddle in the middle of it while stark naked-freezing cold and throwing a bucket of hot water over her head and body and furiously scrubbing with a flannel. Hn.

Kiriyuu was given the spare room to rest in the remainder of the night; Guiseppe treated to her face wounds before night time and Elia… She… uh…. well, she wasn't sympathetic when Kiriyuu arrived at their house, ashen-coloured and drained of life with a mass of dried blood all over her face.

"Kiriyuu, dad made risotto!"

She looked up; her apprentice had poked her head into the doorway.

"You've been sleeping the whole time I've been at school?"

Kiriyuu let out a stifled nod. She was glad that Elia didn't question much about the scar, thinking that it was 'cool' even though Kiriyuu suffered, hurting like hell. The only curious thing Elia peaked interest about was 'What happened to Grapefruit head?'. Of course, 'Grapefruit head' was Hibari, and Kiriyuu refused to answer. Elia had changed in some ways the last time Kiriyuu had seen her; her hair wasn't too dark black anymore, but sported a dark blue hue that glimmered in the light – the back of her head was also thoroughly layered, fluffed up into a weird pineapple-fashion. Kiriyuu asked her what was with that hairstyle, but all Elia said was that it was a trend nowadays in Kokuyo. It wasn't just her hair that had changed – Elia's personality hadn't really transformed dramatically though. She was actually a lot nicer, and all since she began attending Kokuyo High.

Elia stopped chewing gum, took up cooking lessons, and wore less black. "What's wrong with you now?"

Kiriyuu blinked. "Huh?"

"….. What's wrong? Stop being so depressed; it's really annoying because you sit on your fat butt all day just moping and going 'woe is me, woe is meeee!'. Oh please, there are plenty of people with worse lives than you - They're all hobos and junkies kicked out of home and living in the streets, and you're only 14 years old for Pete's sake. It's not too late to start making something out of your life." Elia said, crossing her arms over her chest as she leant on the doorway. She was dressed in Kokuyo High's uniform – a fugly pea-green coloured blazer with a matching skirt – well, Kiriyuu thought it was horrible. She didn't like green. Elia certainly didn't suit green, that was for sure.

Kiriyuu scoffed in response, glimpsed at her backside (her bum was fat???), and looked back up, still sitting on the bed in her pyjamas. "I have lots to be depressed about, Ellie." The fact that Elia would possibly betray Kiriyuu in the near future made Kiriyuu feel even worse, to be honest.

"Then stop thinking so much then. The world doesn't revolve around you, you know. Your roots are showing by the way."

"Eh?"

Elia gestured to the top of Kiriyuu's head. "Brown. It's showing through the orange. And there's more. Look – " She then skipped over, her boots echoing off the tiled floor – and she lifted a strand of Kiriyuu's long hair, dangled it in the light. " – White hair. You have a white hair. Uh-oh!" An evil snigger.

Kiriyuu's eyes widened. "EH?! Lemme look at that!" She grabbed her hair back from Elia as she let go, and Kiriyuu inspected the greying strand in her palm. "Oh my god." She sat back, looked at Elia with a gobsmacked expression. "Ellie, I have a white hair."

"That's what you get when you think too much, Kiriyuu. All the male teachers at school are bald – because they have to think too much in their crappy, research-imbued, scholar-ific lives. Their hair turns grey, then white and finally falls off." Elia said spitefully, as she removed her boots and leapt onto Kiriyuu's bed with her socks, before beginning to sing in a nasty tune and circling the girl profoundly in long strides, making the bed go up and down: "She's turning into a baldeeee, Kiriyuu's turning into a baldeeee! And the worst part is that she's only 14 yearsssss oooooooold!!!"

"Urgh. Stop that." Kiriyuu moaned out, clenching her hands over her ears. Dreadful singing plus horrible lyrics made Kiriyuu feel worse than she had been.

"Loneleeee! She's soooo lonely! She has nobodeeee, all on her own!!!" Elia continued, jumping up and down in the bed again.

Her eye twitched as she tried to blot out the noise. _Tolerate…. She's only 12 years old…_

Elia's song continued. "So lonely and singleeeeeee! Grapefruit Head dumped her, found a prettier girl, and now she's got nowhere to goooo!"

Kiriyuu finally felt a vein pop in her head. "Why, you little - !" she lunged at Elia, and they entangled into a messy heap of arms and leg on the bed, screaming and flailing in all sorts of directions. _Stupid Apprentice! Stupid cousin! Stupid Elia! Stupid stupid stupid!!_

"Daddy!!" Elia shrieked as they struggled around, the bed covers practically falling to the floor as they fought, her fingernails were digging into Kiriyuu's arm in an effort to pry her off, "Kiriyuu's hurting me!!! Ow, let go!"

"You take that back!! Hibari didn't dump me for somebody else! Raaarghh!!!" Kiriyuu growled, like a mad dog all over again.

They continued screaming and strangling each other. Elia pulled off her stud earring and threw it towards Kiriyuu's direction; the girl's eyes widened and she immediately scrabbled back, as the earring detonated in a dusty cloud.

"Earring bomb?!" Kiriyuu gasped, then glared, pointing accusingly at Elia. "OH NO, YOU DIDN'T!"

"I did! What are you gonna do about it?" Elia retorted with a snort, waggling her tongue at Kiriyuu.

She went slightly red, then promptly lunged at Elia again, and the fight continued. A pair of hurried footsteps echoed down the hall, and Guiseppe run inside the room, looking flustered and holding a wooden spoon in his hand. At the sight of the two girls practically killing each other, he screamed. "No, no! Stop it! Girls, stop fighting! Kiriyuu, let go of Elia's neck! Elia, let go of Kiriyuu's hair!!"

Nobody backed down; Elia and Kiriyuu were looking at each with bloody murder. Guiseppe sighed, walked over to the two girls and bopped Elia repeatedly on the head with the wooden spoon.

"OW! Daaaad! She started it!" Elia yelled back fiercely, as they continued to shriek and hit each other.

"Stop that right now, or you won't have any risotto!"

That stopped them. Elia's grip loosened, and Kiriyuu let go. They both sat back, breathing heavily, glaring at each other.

"Now apologise to one another and realise how lucky you are to have each other. Kiriyuu, since you're older and more mature (perhaps), you're supposed to be responsible over Elia's actions and teach her well; she's just like your little sister. Elia, Kiriyuu always looks out for you so she deserves your respect as well." Guiseppe said, in a matter-of-fact tone. Sheesh, these girls were like siblings, really.

Elia grumbled under her breath, Kiriyuu looked miserable already.

"Go on." He egged them on. "And give each other a hug, too."

There was a brief, uncomfortable silence, then -

"I'm sorry." It was Kiriyuu to apologise first.

The other girl blinked, somewhat stunned. She gawked at Kiriyuu for a moment, then looked down at her feet. "… I'm sorry too."

"That's better." Guiseppe said, with a small smile. "See? Isn't it better when we all get along?"

Kiriyuu went 'ngnghhh' again in discouragement as Elia wriggled over to Kiriyuu, and they hugged each other firmly, while Guiseppe threw a concerned glance to Kiriyuu, particularly at her head, where a silvery strand of hair stuck out in her ginger head like a sore thumb. The girl sighed as they let go and sat back on the bed. "…So what do you suppose I do about it?"

Elia pursed her lips. Then a grin suddenly quickly spread across the younger girl's face. "… Wait right here."

Guiseppe followed Elia's retreating back. "I'll get back to cooking. Risotto will be ready in ten minutes."

Kiriyuu nodded as Guiseppe returned back to the kitchen, then returned back to waiting; Elia had left the room rather hurriedly, then emerged back, with a small, black-silk trinket bag in hand, and showed it to her mentor. Kiriyuu raised an eyebrow, and Elia zipped it open, pulled out a half-full bottle of black hair dye, and nudged it towards Kiriyuu, still grinning.

"Dye your hair black. That way; no-one can see the brown or white."

Kiriyuu stared at the bottle.

Elia's grin further broadened. "Come to the dark side."

* * *

Sorry, that was a bit insane I didn't really like this chapter much. Wow. Hibari's day was soooo boring.

Here are the list of references mentioned in the story. I think you will have fun reading this list. **Disclaimer: I do not own them so you can't sue meeeee!**

* * *

**The Hitman Chronicles** (Title of Chapter 1. I thought it fitted to the chapter so well :D)

**Disneyland, Armageddon, War of the Worlds, Godzilla** (I'm 100 percent sure about Disneyland and the War of the Worlds; the rest…. I think these were mentioned somewhat at sometime in the story at some point…)

**The Grudge** (Chapter 1, 17, 27)

**Bridget Jones' Diary** (Chapter 2)

**Dragonball Z** (Chapter 4)

**The Incredible Hulk **(Chapter 4)

**The Lion King** (Chapter 5)

**Hana Yori Dango** (Chapter 6, parodied into 'Hana Yori Banjo'. Don't ask)

**Lord of the Rings** (Chapter 6, Kiriyuu's resemblance to the little grey thing that fawns over the ring half the time: 'Preciousssss')

**Love, Actually** (Title of Chapter 7, but I put 'It's' in front of it)

**The Darkness' 'I Believe in a Thing Called Love'** (Chapter 7, Kiriyuu's Brain Jukebox)

**Star Wars** (Chapter 7, 18, Profile)

**The Jerry Springer Show** (Chapter 7)

**X Factor** (Chapter 7)

**Nelly Furtado's 'Maneater'** (Chapter 9, Brain Jukebox)

**Kingdom Hearts** (Chapter 10, parodied into '_Kingdom Tarts_')

**Playstation 3** (Chapter 10, parodied into '_Polystation 3_')

**Soul Calibur 4** (Chapter 10, parodied into '_Sole Calibur_')

**Silent Hill: Homecoming** (Chapter 10, parodied into '_Violent Hill_')

**Silent Hill 2 **(Chapter 10 and 27, with minor reference because Pyramid Head was mentioned in Kiriyuu's dream, and she imagined her punishment - Hibari carrying a big knife, dressed in garment similar to Pyramid Head ready to kill and skin her in Chapter 27. Wtf, right?)

**Close Encounters of the Third Kind **(Chapter 10)

**The Land of the Dead **(Chapter 10)

**Spiderman** (Chapter 11)

**Loch Ness** (Chapter 11)

**Humpty Dumpty** (Chapter 12. Yes, he has copyright issues, too)

**Captain Caveman **(Chapter 15)

**Mr Blobby **from_**Noel Edmund's House Party**_ (Chapter 15)

**Legoland** (Chapter 15, 24. A survey was carried out in households, and results showed that compared to dropping remote controls on your feet, or getting hands jammed in cupboards, stepping on a lego brick left on the floor was the worst possible pain you could experience in a house)

**Fall Out Boy's 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs'** (Title of Chapter 16)

**King Kong** (Chapter 16)

**Yorkie/Snickers, the Chocolate bar** **supposedly** **for boys** (Chapter 17. Evidential sexism regarding chocolate)

**Pocky **(Chapter 17. Because everyone loves pocky)

**Blair Witch Project **(Chapter 17)

**Xena the Warrior Princess** (Chapter 20, Profile)

**The Godfather** (Title of Chapter 20)

**Animals and You** (Chapter 21, Profile)

**Go Girl** (OMG! I completely made this up back when I wrote Chapter 21, I swear – and guess what? A few days ago, I went out, and there was actual magazine called 'Go Girl'. I don't know if it was just published or what not, but it freaked me out)

**Return of the Cuckoo** (Chapter 21)

**The Condor Heroes** (Chapter 21)

**Elvis Presley** (Chapter 22-3)

**The Day after Tomorrow** (Chapter 23)

**Action Man** and** Barbie** (Chapter 23)

**Moss-12, AK-47 **(Chapter 24, I don't think the Moss-12 is an actual gun. The AK-47, however, _**is**_ a gun… I told you this story was a bad influence, ne?)

**Power Rangers **(Chapter 26, 29)

**Audition **(Chapter 27, if you read it closely during the TYB part, it is actually a minor reference: 'fleshy thing in a bag with no tongue')

**Psycho** (Chapter 27, Brain Jukebox)

**Clive Barker's Tortured Souls** (Chapter 28, with minor reference to Talisac, the scientist who made himself a nice, gelatine-looking artificial womb and hung himself by the face via hooks. He gave birth to Mongroid, a monster who ended up devouring him. Very disturbing indeed)

**Scarface **(Chapter 30 title)

**I Believe in Miracles** (Chapter 30. I have no idea who sings it unfortunately - really)

**Wallace and Gromit** (Chapter 31. Google it up if you don't know who they are)

'**Lonely' by Akon** (Chapter 31. I really don't know the lyrics to that song, but I think they were quite spot-on)

**Dolce and Gabbana** (Chapter 31)


	32. The Chapter which Mukuro Comes Out

please excuse the length of this chapter title. It is ridiculously long.

**Chapter 32**

_The Extra Fantabulous, Super-Spectaculous, Ultra-Magnificent Chapter (actually it's not really) with an excessively long title as a contribute to the chapter in which Mukuro's Debut Arrives - Finally_

_(or The Chapter in which Mukuro Comes Out)_

Hm.

Ginger hair really wasn't common in Japan. It also wasn't much of a trend. No, she'd seen other fashionable trends – girls painting their face completely dark black or brown and contrast it with shockingly-fluorescently-bright coloured hair with dark circles under their eyes (this is an actual trend, I think it's pretty old, and I forgot the name). She fingered Elia's hair dye in her hand. It was good of her to provide Kiriyuu with it – she also didn't want anyone from Namimori recognising her. What was worse was that Elia was right; Kiriyuu's roots were also starting to show her hair's true colour.

Brown.

The ginger dye was fading away anyway, revealing the dull, muddy tinge of chestnut brown. She didn't like brown. It was too common, she had thought. Her future self had brown hair. She certainly wasn't going to stick to that now, especially since she even had the scar. What else was worse was that Elia had found that white hair. At least it was just one. But still. That _white_ hair. Grrr.

Kiriyuu stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror; she bent her head down, with her hair covering her left eye, cocked it to the side, and raised a hand, touched her face. The lighting of the bathroom was very poor. Dark shadows hung from her eyes and over the rest of her face. Her complexion, was really starting to change.

She brought her hand back down to her side; she was dressed bottom up in Kokuyo attire, with the ugly green skirt and the brown boots similar to Elia's. Elia said that they probably wouldn't allow Kiriyuu to come to the programme if she wasn't a Kokuyo student, so she had given Kiriyuu her spare Kokuyo uniform in order to blend in. The green jacket was hung on the rank for the moment.

Following the Swedish instructions with much difficulty (oh god, why Swedish?), Kiriyuu managed to at least comprehend the graphical instructions; she looped a plastic bag which she customised by cutting it up with a pair of scissors to wrap over her neck so she wouldn't get dye on her clothes, and began happy-slapping black dye all over the rest of her head, making sure she got into the roots. After twenty minutes of waiting for the dye to soak in had passed, she put her magazine away, and rinsed it off.

When Kiriyuu looked back up, she stared at herself.

Black hair.

……………….

The 'programme' was held in the derelict Kokuyo Resort, at the theatre, which featured hundreds of Kokuyo students queuing outside. Elia looked just as eager as they did. This… 'programme' was what Kokuyo students had been attending at least three times a week at 10pm in this screwed-up, ass-freezing place – including Elia, who showed her support by copying the presenter of this show's hairstyle.

Mukuro Rokudo.

Kiriyuu didn't recognise this name. She didn't give a damn actually, and just stood in the corner beside Elia, silently brooding, watching Kokuyo students who were giving her subjective looks due to the bandage over her cheek.

Why was this 'programme' such a hype? What went on? Was it that great? Was it stand-up comedy?? Was it a jazz gig or something?

Anyway, the supporters came from all different backgrounds and ages, from freshmen to seniors; they huddled in their groups like Emperor penguins on the ice caps, wobbling their bags/eggs between their legs whilst anticipating the 'show' to begin in a few minutes which would be just be through the front door, and up a flight of steps, to the grand theatre royale, according to a yellowing leaflet Kiriyuu found in the lobby set amongst a bunch of old, discarded flyers and postcards, the theatre was actually established as a cinema, but still regained several traditional purposes, such as a small stockroom for backstage props and a dressing room.

There were a few fangirls there; they all had their hair done up like Elia's hairstyle too, and were eagerly chatting to themselves all about this Mukuro person. They were all mumbling about these weird stuff, things like 'Mukuro the healer of the lame'… Mukuro the great… Mukuro the hottie… Mukuro the sexy…. Argh, whatever. Kiriyuu thought she had just had enough. She flicked her attention to the local Kokuyo football club who were swarming over more Mukuro merchandise.…Not as if they were any better.

The lobby was exceptionally cold even though it was tepid Japan, and Kiriyuu then squashed herself beside Elia, who was sitting on a manky sofa in a desolate corner, beside a dead plant that looked like it might rear teeth and start biting at them viciously. What a horrible place. "So…. Um. What's his name again?" Kiriyuu asked, as she looked around; students were actually giving her strange, almost cautious glances, some people were even whispering. It was because of her face, and her hair, probably. Kiriyuu now looked intimidating.

"Rokudo Mukuro-sama." Elia replied back, "He's positively Italian. And he's such a motivational speaker."

Hm. Italian. A funky name (sounds like a raving rock star or something, Kiriyuu thought). A motivational speaker. So it wasn't stand-up comedy shows or jazz gigs. What a great combination. "What does he talk about?"

"…. Things, that… are… really inspiring! Everyone listens to him. He's a student at Kokuyo, too! But…. I've never seen him before. I just know that he is a senpai…seriously though, everyone listens to what he says."

"So…. he's also a bit of a shrink?"

"No, not a shrink….He's just a regular guy. And he really likes our accent!"

"Eh?"

"Y'know, since we're from Genoa, and the Italian dialect is a bit different there… he really likes it."

"Are you close with him?"

Elia rolled her eyes slowly. "Weeeell, we just talked… twice, three times, maybe more. Ehehe, I don't know! But he knows my name and he's really friendly. You should really get to meet him. He's really niiiiiice. And he smells great, too."

"…Eeeeeyeah, whatever." Kiriyuu stared at her suspiciously with one eye squinted. "You fancy him, don't you?"

"SHHHH!" Elia slammed a hand over Kiriyuu's mouth. "Ya muppet! Keep your voice down – the fangirls will hear you!"

Kiriyuu pried off Elia's hand from her mouth. "So you _do_ like him."

The girl frowned. "No, I've only spoken to him several times and what he says is really awe-inspiring. I just think he's a really nice guy."

"Okay, whatever, you've said that about five hundred times now." She still couldn't see what the big fuss was about. As if she wanted some kind of mumbo-jumbo shrink named Mukuro Rokudo telling her how to live life and view it from a different perspective or whatever religious cult things he'd throw at her judging by what was really going on here.

She did the math - A derelict theatre, a meeting at 10pm, plus hundreds of loyal followers? Equals Religious cult, probably.

Maybe he was distributing drugs secretly. Or worse.... maybe it was something Kiriyuu and Elia were too young to see. After all, Rokudo Mukuro was apparently a senior student – so were most of the students who were showing support by attending. Kiriyuu swallowed, dumbstruck as disturbing images flew through her mind. But she was still curious, and Elia's enthusiasm about this Jerry Springer-wannabe wasn't easing her growing curiosity down, either.

A weird noise sounded; quite animal-like yet with human properties (if that was possible) and people perked up. The noise came from this boy who was standing at the grand staircase leading up to the theatre. He was also wearing the Kokuyo trademark green blazer and trousers, with sandy blonde hair sticking in all sorts of direction from his head. He looked strange – with that tongue waggling out and all; she'd just think that he was just another uncouth, senior jock – with an extra long and pointy tongue – which she did, to be honest, as students began to rise up from their spots and lumber into the theatre room, following this strange boy with hairclips who had beckoned them in. When Kiriyuu and Elia entered through the doorway along with the other students; Kiriyuu suddenly received a deep shiver down her spine.

It wasn't just a shiver. Kiriyuu just felt…. Odd in general. Out of place, almost nauseous, dizzy.

She stopped for a moment, looked up and around.

"Ellie, did you feel that? Ellie? …. Ellie…?" Kiriyuu turned to the girl beside her; she was smiling, but there was this bizarre, transfixed gaze on her face, her eyes had turned blank and empty. "Ellie?!" Kiriyuu grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

She just kept smiling, craned her head to Kiriyuu slowly. Kiriyuu almost gasped. Elia looked like she was high on coke or something. "….That way… Mukuro-sama wants us to go that way…." She was leading to Kiriyuu to the back of the theatre in a dream-like trance, still with those empty, creepy eyes. Strange, she wasn't like a few minutes ago before they entered the theatre…

It wasn't just Elia; everyone else seemed to be stuck in the same, zombie-on-drugs state too, looking like half-brained individuals and piling into their seats with empty, vacant stares, their eyes trained on the centre stage.

Kiriyuu just watched on worriedly and feeling slightly perturbed, a sick feeling beginning to stir in her gut, but she willed herself to stay and at least see what the hubbub in Kokuyo was all about.

_What's going on? Why is everyone like this? Is it part of this 'show'? Who is this Rokudo Mukuro? Hmm, guess I should play along too. _"…. Mukuro-sama….Mukuro-sama…." Kiriyuu droned, following the same flat tone Elia and the others possessed while looking around nervously. Awk-ward! They sat down. Elia was now staring at the theatre stage. Kiriyuu copied too (not that there was really any need).

A few minutes later, and the magic show began.

The curtain rose up.

The lights dimmed.

Very strange.

_Shit, need the bathroom._

Unfortunately, there were no signs indicating a fire exit or a bathroom. Kiriyuu gawked, her eyes darting up and around nervously. She was sitting at the back, crushed amongst zombie-looking individuals who were all still chanting repetitively 'Mukuro-sama' monotonously and excessively. Religious cult, yes? She wouldn't be so surprised if they started to get up from their seats and bowed over and over again. The bad feeling continued to rise in her gut, but she decided to stay and find out what was happening first before she jumped to conclusions.

Like the fact that this could be some kind of plot to hypnotise and control the entire Kokuyo student body.

Kiriyuu didn't manage to see how the lone figure arrived on stage because of someone's big football-head blocking her view. But then she could hear a voice, loud and clear, and she rose up slightly in her seat, trying to get a better view. Nobody was chanting his name anymore; they'd stopped, and were now watching silently, listening to his every word.

Religious cult, definitely.

_Still can't see_, she thought, as the humongous melon-sized, blobbadubious head continued to block her view. _Damn it._ _What's so good about this talk-show anyway?_ She ended up having to pile up on the seat on her knees, and poking her head upwards above the beach ball-head just to get a better look at the stage.

The stage was musty, with tattered, velvet red curtains draping dejectedly from the 50-foot circular ceiling. The ground was dusty and ripped, floorboards reflected with shimmering broken glass and other bits and pieces of debris. Three figures were there; two were standing (the boy with hairclips, and one guy with black hair and glasses), while the other, was sitting on a chair in the centre. It was the shrink -- Mukuro Rokudo. Kiriyuu blinked; he was surprisingly attractive in his own way, with a charming, pleasant smile plastered on his fine face, those sharp, effervescent eyes staring back at his loyal audience, and….

Oh, that _**hairdo**_.

Kiriyuu could understand why _that _was a trend now. She honestly had never seen anyone with a hairstyle like that and get away with it.

Mukuro clasped his hands together, leant forward slightly towards the front row where the rabid fangirls were sitting. He'd watched them all thoroughly (Kiriyuu hid again as he scoured). His most faithful followers compromised of a 100-strong Kokuyo army of students; of course, they were all just mind-controlled goons. He didn't even go to their school, just posed as a student there, stole a few uniforms, and suddenly they all flock together where he instigated a mass 'massacre' in which he took over all their minds once they stepped through that wretched doorway of this godforsaken theatre.

And his power and control over them kept increasing every time they came to 'hear' him, too.

Meanwhile, Kiriyuu had actually been listening to him – not entirely his words, but something else (if that was really possible) - His voice – the sound of his voice. It was very lucid and captivating, charismatic; it was suave, attractive… she understood how Elia thought he was a massive influence on Kokuyo; so it wasn't surprising he had so many followers.

_Hn. A voice like that could win elections_, she thought with a snide tug of her lips. She sniggered feebly at her own joke.

Kiriyuu also thought she had heard the voice from somewhere, but she couldn't place where. As she watched him thoroughly, particularly at his hairstyle; she'd realise that his hair was short, fashioned with the downy, 'pineapple' hair at the back, thus the real reason which induced the hair craze to Elia and those fangirls she saw back at the lobby previously. Speaking of Elia; the girl was still in the strange trance-like state Kiriyuu could not seem to snap her out of. She decided that she'd wait a bit more and figure out what was going on here.

He was speaking. Kiriyuu was more entranced with the shrink in general. He… reminded her of… Hibari in some way.

Wait.

She'd heard it.

"…._Kufufu_…."

A creepy, sadistic laugh. He was also talking about world domination. EH? That wasn't just it. He was still talking. Something about conscription, recruitment. He was recruiting people. For… world domination? He continued. "… This world is full of corruption." He was saying, and Kiriyuu raised an eyebrow. Nothing awe-inspiring about that. "… Plagiarised by those who do not know their rightful place. It is filthy, and we shall obliterate it, create a new world."

What on earth was he prattling about? Kiriyuu thought, as she listened. What was strange was that everyone was really soaking this up like sponges. Even Elia.

"Betrayal, injustice, greed, dishonesty…. This miserable world has it all."

_I think you're just depressed and can't see another way of life. And you call yourself a shrink, _Kiriyuu thought, and she let out another snicker at her own joke.

The snicker was quiet, yet loud enough amongst the even-lower-than-quiet atmosphere that it was thoroughly carried back to the front, and ringleader Mukuro had heard. "Oh?" He looked up calmly, his eyes training on every row, "… Someone who thinks otherwise? Please, stand up and show yourself."

Kiriyuu froze, slapped a hand over her mouth. _I am such a big butthead!!! _Ooooooh god, oooooh god, she'd done it now. Kiriyuu tried to hide, but was mortified to find that almost everyone in her row and in the row in front of her had craned their heads towards her direction, still with the glazed, vacant looks. It was just like those TV Shows where the presenter would go up to the audience and have a chat; the camera would focus on you and everyone can see because you're on national telly. A spotlight seemed to have hovered above Kiriyuu again, and she gulped, frozen like a deer in headlights.

And Elia pulled her up with a rough tug of her wrist.

"Ellie?!"

She drawled in her zombie-state. "…Mukuro-sama…"

Uh-oh. Kiriyuu was now standing – the only one standing - looking extremely silly and foolish. She began to tremble; she did not like being ostracized in public, but this was completely preposterous. Mukuro had also received a full look of her as well – the girl – way at the back, with black hair, average in height, a random Kokuyo student he hadn't seen before. She was kind of cute, looked a bit like a treefrog though, with those poky eyes and that silly smile to cover up the obvious embarrassment. If her hair was orange he'd think she really was a treefrog…. And what happened to her face??

He encouraged her to come down. Not like the terrified girl had a choice anyway, he gestured to the henchmen behind him. "Chikusa, Ken, you know what to do."

The hairclip-hairy boy waved his hand to the boy with glasses standing beside him. "C'mon, Kakipii."

Kiriyuu watched in horror as the two guys from the stage standing behind the shrink had entered the fray. Kiriyuu tried to run, but a few random audience members had grabbed hold of her and carried her down towards them gracelessly by the arms. Very embarrassing, especially because she was kicking and screaming in protest. Anyone who went against Mukuro would be going up against them… gulp. Kiriyuu was then passed on like a baton to the two henchmen who had come to retrieve her. They took her down, in fact, they carefully carried her down to the front, dumped her on the stage at the feet of their ringleader, the shrink, and returned to their positions, leaving her to stare up at a pair of mismatched eyes. Honestly, _what was up with those eyes_?

He stared at her.

She stared at him.

He tilted his head, ever-so-slightly.

She began to hyperventilate.

He raised an eyebrow.

_There is nothing dreamy about his hair. _She thought through rapid inhales of shaky breath as she got a closer look at him.

He was wearing a Kokuyo student uniform, with a light camouflage print shirt underneath and a matching necktag. His eyes really were strange; one was a different colour than the other. The right was red, the left was blue. A bad case of Heterochromia? Or maybe he was one of those people who wore crazy, mismatched contacts thinking that they were cool…?? It was just like how Ryohei with a plaster over his nose considering that to be cool. If she walked around Italy like that, people would stare. Not at her, but the plaster (like the way she was now – with the plaster on her face), probably. Her eyes then scanned the rest of his fine features - His sleek, dark cobalt blue hair was also strange, with a zigzag parting, she noted that Elia and the fangirls had completely mimicked his hairstyle perfectly and completely to every little detail; sheesh, what was up with pineapples these days?

Meanwhile, Mukuro scrutinised this girl thoroughly. What _had _happened to her face? It looked like someone had dragged a lawnmower over her face - a bad accident – perhaps including a razor or something.

Why was she not under his influence like the others?

And why was she not a gorilla arm-swinging, mindless, drooling zombie like the others??

She should've been when she walked through the door and entered the theatre in the first place. His power was strong enough to control everyone. But here she was, staring back up at him with very innocent, pragmatic green eyes. Yes, he could deduct a lot from someone's eyes.

"….." His eyes thoroughly darkened however; he certainly did not recognize this girl. "… You – "

She let out a high-pitched squeak.

He suddenly smiled at her response. She was intimidated, scared. Good. It meant she had no idea what was going on right now. "You have a question you would like to ask me about?" He had definitely never seen this girl before. She was probably relatively new to this. He would provide her a golden opportunity to ask some questions.

Kiriyuu swallowed. Okay, let's break down the current situation –

What's going on?

_Elia's been attending some kind after-school extracurricular activity I thought was like a club or something, but it turns out that the guy who's hosting it has somehow got everyone under his control._

How did he gain 'control'?

_I… I don't know!! I'm scared! Help me!!!_

Focus, ya goon! How do you know that people are being controlled?

_Well, __**somehow**__, they're being controlled - they're chanting his name, he's been talking about recruitment and world domination, and they're all listening like there's nothing wrong. They've suddenly turned into zombies, and they're all…. Just weird! Not normal!_

What do you mean by recruitment?

…_.. Well, he was talking about how he wanted to create a new world, and that this one was filthy, and he wanted strong people to be on his side._

Kiriyuu looked back up. He was still waiting for a question. Everyone was. She stared at his hair, still sitting on the ground. His 'chicken feather's; it looked identical to one who had rubbed a balloon over the top of their head that their hair stood up (an amusing scientific experiment back in the good old days). She looked away from his hair, and back to him. He was watching her keenly.

Kiriyuu thought, hard. "… I like the way your hair parts. You know…. That zigzag pattern… it must've taken you a long time."

Pause.

"How did you do it?"

"Kufufu, I have a special comb." Mukuro replied back proudly with a hand under his chin.

"…. Um. Can I borrow it sometime?"

He shrugged casually, and then cleared his throat. "… Is there anything else?"

"Um… Don't hurt me… please…?"

He let out an amused chuckle, protruded out a hand to her to help her up though she promptly refused. "… I honestly can't say I won't."

………….

I kinda wondered if the Kokuyo students were under Mukuro's control or not when they attacked Hibari back in Kokuyo Health Land; well, in my story, I guess they are.


	33. la vita dopo la morte

You should read this chapter thoroughly. It is, unfortunately, loaded with **tonnes of melodrama**, scenes of a violent nature - but still with some educational properties (really).

**Chapter 33**

_la vita dopo la morte_

"Please, take a seat." Mukuro bantered at Kiriyuu in a surprisingly false jovial manner, as she stood limply on the stage beside him.

What was he going to do? Strangle her, dress her up like his mother and take pictures of her mangled self, post up the pictures and videos on Youtube, before disposing of her rotting corpse in a dumpster? She slapped herself mentally; no, that wasn't how she would die.

It felt like when she was given the role as the first of the Three Wise Men (she was given a fake moustache) back in the Primary School Nativity Play back in Italy. She was about 6 years old, and she'd conveniently forgotten her lines, conveniently forgotten what she was going to present to Mary and Joseph as one of the first gifts (the shape under the cloth hiding the gift was either Myrrh or Frankincense) and just stood there gawking at the audience (composed of 500 parents and other onlookers), looking silly, while the other Two Wise Men were waiting impatiently wanting to present their gift.

Kiriyuu glanced to the chair; an equally derelict ghost-of-a-chair as much as the rest of Kokuyo Health land itself was. "Um… No thanks. I would like to return to my seat now."

He raised a smooth eyebrow, and circled her slowly, still watching her languidly from the corner of his eyes. She wouldn't let this guy intimidate her, so she stared him down, yet suddenly, his eyes flicked down as he stopped behind her, and before she could retaliate -- He'd lashed out, his hand like a striking snake, and snatched her gun from the holster that was firmly attached to her belt. She gasped, stepped back in caution. He twirled the gun in a circle with his long, flexible fingers, before pointing the gun at her forehead.

"Now… will you kindly take a seat?" He asked, still smiling as he held the gun in front of her nose. "… I even said _please_."

Kiriyuu swallowed, and evidently, plopped down into the grimy chair aside his on the stage which gave out under her weight with a weak wheeze of musky, putrid gas, while she blinked stupidly at her own gun that was now being pointed at her head. He let out a light chuckle as he sat in his own chair (which was considerably less grimy than hers) opposite her, but he brought it closer to her, the legs scraping off the wooden floorboards.

"You have a gun."

She said nothing.

"Tell me why you have a gun." He asked again, nicely. Still no reply from the girl. He let out a disheartened sigh at her response, and cocked the gun, pressed it to her temple. Dear lord, just what kind of shrink was he?!!?

"I… I bought it." She lied; letting out a weak mumble. It was pretty unconvincing. Well, duh. Kiriyuu then thought to herself; how could a 14 year old have access to a gun? How much did guns actually cost? Usually she'd get her guns from others, free of charge. Wait. That meant she got them as gifts. Having a gun as a gift. _Holy crap._

His smile widened. "… But you need a license to possess a gun, especially this one… it's for sale in the black market, it's firing rate and killing power exceeds that of a normal revolver…. Unless you're part of the mafia, you wouldn't even have access to this gun… and I doubt that you're something more… or less."

She swallowed the growing uneasy feeling back down into her gut.

"What is your name?"

For no apparent reason, she complied in telling him her name. It was the way he looked at her, and suddenly, she just had to… tell him. "…Ottuso Kiriyuu…."

He sat back, flexed his hands, still toying coyly with the gun. "Ottuso Kiriyuu…" He murmured, her name strolling out from his tongue in an elusive purr. "Ah, do you prefer Kiri-chan, or Yuu-chan? Or how about _Kirie-chan_, shall I call you that for short? I prefer that instead."

Kiriyuu just sat, still blinking dumbly.

"You there, bring me the list." He had suddenly pointed to a random student in the audience, front row seats.

Kiriyuu looked up. The list? What 'list'???! The student stood up without another word, stiffly marched off to the side, into the parlour, and re-emerged out. He made his way up to the stage, stopped behind Mukuro a few minutes later, with a sheet of paper in his hand. "Ah, thank you, my loyal devotee."

Kiriyuu watched the student return back down to his seat after he bowed to him, a sign of respect. _Are these people all his bitches? Probably._

Mukuro was now reading the paper, occasionally flicking glances up at her now and then. When he'd finished, he smiled pleasantly at her again. "You are a sniper, ranked 19th place out of 60,732. Most impressive." Short pause. "… Tell me, Kirie-chan. How do you think snipers are…. 'made'? Is it an innate ability one is determined with by birth, or does it occur naturally as one progresses with training?"

Was he interrogating her? She scratched her chin. "U-Uh…. I… I think it's… a bit of both."

He re-thought about her answer, nodded in agreement. "And have you heard of the 'Hawthorne Effect'?"

Kiriyuu pondered slowly, then shook her head.

He smiled at again, a dark crevasse taking over his splendid features once more as shadows fell over his eyes. "I'll gladly explain; It was a series of experiments that were carried out by a man named Elton Mayo, in which the research focused on manipulating the physical and environmental influences of the workplace in an electric company, and the worker's responsiveness to these changes; the experiments also studied the psychological aspects of the workers, such as examining managerial leadership and group pressure. The outcome was that despite the alterations of the external factors…. the worker's usual standard of productivity still improved."

Her brain fizzed weakly and popped, broke down like a rundown car engine.

Mukuro continued, somewhat amused at her response, "…. You, a sniper, may have come across such external factors which may limit your…. Consistency and… _Efficiency_." He replied. "What external factors may influence your performance? Do you think they would limit one's aptitude, in turn forcing them to prove their natural ability?"

Kiriyuu really had no idea what he was talking about. "Um… I think…. For um, example…** time**… if time was a limiting factor, then… that person…the sniper… if they had… or were… under pressure… with… uh… the fact they…. Had… er, not much time, then…. Obviously their accuracy when sniping than… usual…would…. be…. Crap." She cringed at her response (she guessed this was what happened when someone had a conversation with a person possessing higher intelligence).

Mukuro's smile widened considerably. "Are you _sure_?" He added, as she thought again, then shook her head doubtfully. He continued leisurely, despite the awkward tension Kiriyuu felt, he was very calm, "And do you believe that **you** comprise the innate dispositions of a sniper?"

Kiriyuu thought hard again. "….I… guess I... do. I mean… I don't think about it. I just… do it."

"Hm. Interesting. Very well, we shall move on." He flipped over the file, letting Kiriyuu cool down for a moment. She thoroughly felt interrogated by this guy. Suddenly, his expression soured and she felt danger flash like bright neon lights all over again. "You originate from the Giglio Nero famiglia in Italy. What brings you to Japan?"

_How on earth did he get Fuuta's ranking list in the first place???_ She shook her head rigorously – meaning that she wasn't going to reply to his interrogation; but the gun was pressed dangerously against her once more. She was sweating; why wasn't anyone doing anything? Why wasn't Elia doing anything?! Why was she watching this scene play out like a roll of film? Why was she like the other members of the audience? They were just sitting in their seats, watching this scene quietly, watching it play as if… as if it was normal or something. But there was something wrong. This wasn't normal at all. _He's seriously got them under his control!?_

He inched towards her. She tried to get back, but he chuckled. "Don't move. I just want to see something." He let out a dry, crude smile. "_I won't hurt you, Kirie-chan_." Kiriyuu still shrunk under him, as he grabbed hold of her face even though she struggled – and he placed a cold hand over her plaster - his eyes practically immersing into hers, staring right into her soul, it seemed. "Shhh, I won't hurt you."

She swallowed, as he slowly peeled off the plaster, revealing a sticky pulp of dried blood, mingled with other yellowing bodily fluids that were beginning to cluster over the massive, yet healing wound on her cheek. He replaced it back, and she glared at him weakly.

"That wound..." He began as he watched her with half-lidded eyes, the deep, lulling tone of his voice dripping seductively; he'd used the gun nozzle to trace down the plaster over her scar, and she shivered. "… Whoever horribly disfigured that pretty little face of yours?" The scar actually reminded him of the marks Lanchia had, only she had one, just one, on her left cheek.

Kiriyuu trembled in her seat, inhaling shaky gasps of air and she clenched her eyes shut, wishing that this awful moment would pass. "… H-Hibari…Kyouya…." She squeaked out unconsciously, then she slapped a hand over her mouth. _ARGH! Why did I just do that?!_

"… Namimori's Head Prefect." Mukuro said, withdrawing the gun and cradling it back in his hands. "Well then, would you like the chance to see yourself again without that horrendous disfigurement?"

He looked into her eyes, and Kiriyuu suddenly felt a jolt shudder through her completely. She was… bound up, somehow, her arms and legs no longer willed to move. She was entranced, by this guy – okay, she admitted it – he was ethereal, outlandish, perhaps even great, amazing. He had potential; he had the potential to have her spellbound by his gaze, like Hibari, whenever he always used to look at her in the way he always did. But they were not so similar; Mukuro still held a strange, comforting aura when Hibari was just unreceptive, on the edge, and always aggressive. Nothing comforting at all.

And she couldn't seem to budge or stir or do anything else. Her mind had not adhered to any other thought at the moment; just the thought of him, Mukuro Rokudo only, and his awe-inspiring power and ability, and she blinked, shook her head quickly to rid herself of such ludicrous thoughts. But then she'd suddenly seen herself, like as if she was staring into a mirror, without the scar. She looked the same, except from her newly dyed black hair, but that was pretty much it. There was no scar. The scar… the scar, the scar, the scar… Ugly, permanent, the very opposite mark of autonomy. But no, she didn't care about the scar anymore; it was probably the least important thing she had to think about at the moment.

It was then that Kiriyuu realised how much she hated herself; she hated her dumb, stupid face and her stupid inability to keep friends (or boyfriends) for all that mattered. What was wrong with her? Was she normal? Was there something repelling about her that no matter where she went, she had to lose something she held dear to herself? She growled; she hated how helpless she felt at this situation and in life in general. She hated herself. She was dim-witted and slow, having let people manipulate her like that for their own selfish reasons.

The 'mirror' cracked; a split in the middle, like a spider-web of crinkled glass, reflecting thousands of more dumb, stupid mirror images of her back.

Kiriyuu shook her head fiercely; and the mirror completely vanished – she looked back up at Mukuro. "What have you done to Ellie? And… and all these people?" She asked, her tone still somewhat shaky.

"I asked _you_ a question first, I believe." He hastily replied, his tone with deep, cutting edge. It was obvious he was starting to get impatient at her behaviour, his eyebrows now furrowing into a 'v'.

She didn't even realise he had asked her a question. "… Yes… it was him. Hibari Kyouya." She replied back hesitantly. "… Will you answer my question?"

The smile finally returned to his delicate, handsome features. It made her think; _see how easy it is if she would just answer his question as he had politely requested_, right? He sat back, flexed his palms again. "Very well. The answer to your question is very simple. I control the entire Kokuyo student foundation; that is probably what you have been wondering this time. I also have complete control over little Ellie-chan. She comes to my sessions, and has never missed one. Is she your sister?"

"N-No… I'm her…. cousin…" She stared at him; unable to comprehend fully what he'd just said about 'control'. What did he mean by that? Blackmail? Was he prominently known throughout the neighbourhood to have a bad reputation? Like the kind of power Hibari had? Probably.

He spoke again. "Those who step into this theatre would've been completely under my influence by now. Why haven't you? I am the most… _curious_."

Kiriyuu blinked again. To be honest, she did feel rather influenced by him, otherwise, she wouldn't have told him so much than she would've. He DID hold something over her. Some kind of…. power. Yet she hadn't understood what he meant by that previous statement either. "I… I don't know what you're talking about. But…. Please, leave her alone."

He watched her, with the same darkened expression as before. "You want your cousin's _freedom_, I suppose?"

She wasn't entirely sure what was going on here. "… Leave her alone. I don't know what you did, but… please." She said, wondering why she was being so civilised around him, and he laughed instead. Okay, maybe she could've asked more nicely, but she was feeling positively threatened, and commenced another whelk response. She shrunk under him, still shrinking into her clothes.

"Shall we bring her up on stage?" The smile on his face widened playfully, pulled back into an obscene sneer, and he turned to his faithful audience who had been seated down quietly for almost twenty minutes. So were his two henchmen, who were looking extremely bored. "Ellie-chan, if you please. Your cousin wants to see you." He stood up, gestured with his hand, and tilted himself downwards almost like he was bowing, asking permission for a dance or something.

Elia, who had been sitting still at the back, rigidly sat up from her seat, stiffly made her way down towards the stage in a strange, robot-trance, and wandered up the steps, stopped shortly beside Mukuro. Kiriyuu blinked at her; there was something wrong. There was something strange with Elia's complete welfare; her eyes were still glazed over, the empty orbs staring into nothing in particular.

Mukuro brought her closer, an arm wrapped snugly around the smaller girl's shoulder, which irked Kiriyuu to the max, and she glared venom at him. "Ahh, yes, little Ellie-chan. You never mentioned that you were part of the mafia, did you? Your cousin has come to free you. She doesn't want you to be with me anymore… We won't be able to have our pleasant little chats. Why don't we convince her otherwise so you can stay by my side?"

Kiriyuu watched on helplessly as Mukuro thoroughly handed Kiriyuu's gun to the girl. Her eyes promptly widened as Elia took hold of the gun, gaping at it impassively yet inquisitively, and Mukuro nodded as she had slowly craned her head up at him.

"Ellie, no - !" She stepped forward to her apprentice.

**Click.**

The younger girl was pointing the_ loaded_ gun at her. Kiriyuu froze in mid-step. "…E-Ellie…?"

Elia, still with her eyes blank all over, fixed and dull, slowly lifted the gun and…. She opened her mouth. Kiriyuu watched on, horrified as Elia tucked the gun nozzle into her mouth, as if Mukuro had silently commanded her to.

"NO!" Kiriyuu screamed, her voice echoing around the lonely walls. "No! What the hell are you doing, Ellie?! Stop that! Take that gun out of your mouth right now!"

Elia clicked the gun again, the revolver whirred inside the case.

"… She doesn't listen to you anymore, Kirie-chan. Only me." Mukuro crooned at her viciously with a smug, satisfied grin. "I can make her blow her brains out whenever I want to."

"What the hell have you done to her, you bastard?!" Kiriyuu shrieked, and in a matter of seconds, she suddenly whipped out another gun, pointing it at Mukuro.

He smirked at her. "… Oya, so you had another gun all along." The two henchmen had moved slightly from their spots, but Mukuro stopped them.

"I'm not an idiot." She barked at him fiercely, "If you make Elia shoot herself; I'll blast your head clean off your shoulders in seconds. I'm a sniper. I don't miss. _Ever_."

Mukuro held his arms up in 'surrender', and Elia, still under Mukuro's control, took the gun out of her mouth. "Fine. You got me."

For a moment, Kiriyuu pondered how he could admit defeat like that so easily. "…Take back what whatever 'control' you have over her, and I won't shoot you." She growled at him.

"As you wish." He replied, with another smirk. Kiriyuu suddenly felt a feeling below par arise in the pit of her stomach; she knew he had something else planned up his sleeve.

And then –

"Kiriyuu?!"

At the sound of her name being called out by a familiar, yet annoyingly, high-pitched and shrill-infested voice, she turned round, still holding the gun towards Mukuro's direction. "Elia, you're…you're okay." However, Kiriyuu didn't seem to believe it and eyed her warily. She didn't know what Mukuro was capable of. Maybe he had withdrew the 'control' over Elia, and…. Maybe he hadn't.

_Easy does it_, she thought, sweating lightly. _I'm supposed to have a slash across my cheek and Elia's supposed to betray me in the future. Don't want anything else coming true._

Elia let out a scoff and rolled her eyes. "Duh, of course I'm okay. What a stupid question."

Kiriyuu breathed a sigh of relief, glad to see that Elia was now responding back in the way a proper human did (and not like a zombie).

Elia was, indeed, now back to normal, yet gawking in disbelief at her mentor. At first, the girl wasn't quite sure why she was standing on the stage, but she knew that she had been participating in the programme up until now, and Mukuro-sama had been speaking about student life and other life woes and it was all true and so inspirational. And now she was suddenly here, and Kiriyuu was there too. She looked from the gun in Kiriyuu's hand, to Mukuro. It didn't look right. Why was Kiriyuu holding a gun to her Mukuro-sama, the most well-loved student of Kokuyo? Why was Kiriyuu doing such a thing in front of so many people? What the hell was going on?!! She looked around; facing the audience, and then back to Mukuro and Kiriyuu. "W-What's going on? Why are you – What are you doing?!" She shrieked at her in a helpless manner, flailing her arms around. "What the hell are you doing, Kiriyuu?!"

The girl blinked at her. "I – "

Elia pointed accusingly at her, throwing her arms up in the air. "Why are you pointing that gun to Mukuro? ARE YOU _CRAZY_? Why are you threatening him??! Stop that right now!"

She was momentarily stunned at Elia's outburst for a moment, and paused for a split moment, standing stupidly on the spot while stammering, but then she realised – of course, Elia was confused – she didn't realise what Mukuro was doing, and what he was capable of doing, and she certainly didn't realise that right now, everyone in the Kokuyo theatre were being controlled by Mukuro, and all she was witnessing now was Kiriyuu pointing a gun to Mukuro.

Kiriyuu tried to explain, but she did not point the gun away from Mukuro just yet, "No, Ellie, he's not what he seems, he's really – "

"The only thing I'm seeing is you holding a gun at his face!" Elia yelled back at her mentor, in a matter-of-fact tone. The last thing she wanted was everyone at school to know that she was part of the mafia. "Are you trying to blow our cover or something? I can't believe you!"

Meanwhile, Mukuro was watching in bemusement.

"Are you trying to kill him?!" Elia demanded, obviously furious.

"No, I'm just trying to – "

"I knew it -- You're crazy -- You're turning insane because that Hibari Kyouya dumped you!"

Kiriyuu glared, "WHAT?! This has nothing to do with him!" Kiriyuu was starting to get angry. How dare she bring this up at this time(!?). This situation was getting out of hand. "Ellie, if you would just listen to me – "

"Put the gun down first, Kiriyuu!!!"

"No, he's going to hurt you if I – "

"Put the goddamn gun down!!!"

"I'm only trying to save you, Elia!"

In response, Elia gritted her teeth, her face reddening with fury at Kiriyuu's unexplainable actions. "Save me? I don't need you to '_**save**_' me!"

"Elia, he's – "

"He's not a bad person! How many times do I have to tell you that?!"

"He knows we're part of the mafia!"

"Of course he does! You're pointing a freaking gun at him!"

"He's going to hurt you if I – "

"Mukuro-sama wouldn't hurt anyone! I know him much better than you do!"

"No you don't!"

Elia finally felt her blood boil up to 100 degrees. "Y_es I do!!_" She screamed back, pointing a sharp finger relentlessly at the other girl, "See, this is _**your**_ problem, Kiriyuu – you always think you're _always_ right when you're not, you don't trust anyone, ie, ME, and you certainly don't listen to anyone, ie, ME AGAIN, because you're so goddamn stubborn and so uptight about your opinions! You can't seem to see when you're wrong - You're treat me like a kid; you always butt in and end up ruining things for me – "

"Elia, I only do these things to protect you – "

"I don't need you to protect _**me**_!"

"Just listen to me –"

"For the last time, put the gun down from his face!" Elia screamed at her, "Or-Or I swear to God, I-I will… I will – " Elia suddenly gawped at the gun that was in her hand, and she shakily lifted it up to Kiriyuu's direction, "_I will shoot you_, okay?"

"You're going against me? For this guy?" Kiriyuu looked at her in disbelief, "He's dangerous!"

"The only person who I regard as dangerous here is YOU."

"Elia, stop it. This is exactly what he wants – "

"Shut up!!!"

"Eli – "

A gunshot resounded.

There was an uncomfortable silence following. Mukuro glanced at Kiriyuu, who was blinking dumbly, stunned. Elia was gawking at her hand, the one with Kiriyuu's gun.

A thick stream of smoke poured out from the nozzle, dissolving into the atmosphere.

Then a spray of blood burst out from Kiriyuu's left shoulder. And she dropped to the ground, onto the dusty floorboards. A pool of blood spilled out, surrounding her body. Kiriyuu let out a strangled cry from the back of her throat, as the pain in her shoulder spread quickly down her arm and her hand; it was so intense that she let go of the gun, arm was trembling, her fingers taut and stretched, shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't even scream, instead, attempted to absorb the pain.

Mukuro glanced down at the girl lying near his feet. Then he looked at the other, who was pointing the gun. "… What have you done, Ellie-chan?"

She didn't even realise she had been holding onto a gun all along. Elia's mouth hung open as she stared at Kiriyuu, dumbfounded at her own actions. Then she immediately dropped the gun in horror, stepped back a few paces. "Oh my god, I – I… I – I'm sorry, I honestly didn't… I didn't meant to – I just wanted to stop you - " She stammered back weakly; she was terrified – she couldn't have shot – but in her hand, the recoil she felt of the bullet ejecting from the – it was there. She fired. She didn't even realise, it went so quick, like a wave crashing angrily on a beach – it just came over her from nowhere, just like that. _W-What have I done…?!_

"….Elia…." Kiriyuu croaked out, as she tried to look back up.

The girl froze at the sound of her name being called out. She practically felt a chill down her spine, and she stared, her dark eyes transfixed on the poor girl in front of her. She had shot her; she didn't know where she had shot her, and if Kiriyuu was seriously wounded or not, but… it felt like…..

_Murder. _

And it felt like she had Kiriyuu's blood stained on her hands. She stammered; emitting out a series of mixed, jumbled noises, "I-I didn't… I didn't mean to!!" She spluttered, and then -

Elia turned on her heel, and _ran_.

Mukuro stopped his two lackeys from following her. "Ken, Chikusa, I think we have more important matters to attend to right now."

Kiriyuu just watched in mute horror as the girl practically ripped the emergency fire exit door behind the stage and vanish from her view. A strangled noise erupted from the back of her throat. "E-El… _**Elia**_!!?!"

_SLAM_

She suddenly began to feel a surge of hysteria flourish into her, and she cried and cried and cried out, panic-stricken, desperate, _shocked_. _**Angry**_. "ELLIE!!"

Silence.

Elia wasn't coming back.  
Something snapped within Kiriyuu.

_But… but… how would she explain going back home by herself? She'd get in trouble, right? Right…? RIGHT?!_ _And what would Guiseppe say?_ Oh great, Kiriyuu just remembered – Guiseppe had been given an assignment and would be away from Kokuyo for at least _**four **_days or even more because she knew Guiseppe always lingered at some point. Oh shit oh shit. What nice timing. What incredibly nice timing. It felt as if the whole world was against her. Kiriyuu felt as if the last shred of her sanity wither away. Oh fuck it.

Mukuro turned back to the remaining girl, who was still lying on the floor. She dropped her head up slowly back to the ground in disbelief, still breathing heavily; the bullet had penetrated her like a knife through hot butter, possibly still lodged in her scapula. She felt horrible as she felt his stony gaze on her; but what made her feel even worse was that _**look**_ he was giving her. He wasn't smiling anymore, that was for sure. His eyebrows were deeply furrowed, his eyes scanning her pathetic form.

She looked away from him, her face reddening with fury.

"….Disappointing, isn't it?" He merely said, his voice low and hushed, surprisingly… comforting.

"Who, me?" She croaked out feebly.

"You know who I'm talking about. So how do you feel? _Betrayed?_ Outraged? Sad?"

"…. Were you still controlling her?"

He blinked innocently back at her. "What could I have done? You were holding a gun to my face."

She looked back down. "Fine. I don't care. It doesn't even matter anymore." The sweltering hot pain in her shoulder… or what she thought was the pain was embedded in her 'shoulder' was worsening, spreading down past her unmoving, limp hands that were splayed in a distorted fashion, spreading down to her entire lower section of her body, and she twitched involuntarily. The pain was too much. Even breathing seemed like hard-core labour.

_Am… Am I going to die here? _

She went to thinking back to why she here in the first place. She found out she had been a guinea pig all along in the Giglio Nero experiment, and somehow, she felt like another experiment in this Kokuyo Health Land programme organised by Mukuro. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly; the physical pain in her shoulder didn't faze her anymore.

It was something else.

The feeling… that…. _Everything was gone. Lost forever._

She was now totally alone; she gave up her friends, she gave up Hibari. She gave up Namimori. What did she have left?_ Nothing_. What was remaining was a loyalty… some kind faith… A faith she desperately wanted to hold onto; a faith she needed towards somebody… anybody… to keep her going, and a faith to keep her positive – something… or someone that gave her a sense of identity and place, satisfaction; someone who would value her intentions and abilities. But… A loyalty to who?

…_. Mukuro...?_

She felt her mind squeeze tight, and she felt incapable of making sensible decisions. Kiriyuu felt lost; it was like when a bug lost its antenna; when a bug loses an antenna, then it's incapable of finding its way home, or anything, it feels blindly in the dark, with no guidance or help. In fact, she was the bug. She was tiny, pathetic, weak, easily preyed on, stepped on. She had no more beacon of light anymore; there was no-one there to help her. She felt insecure.

_I hate the mafia. I want to eradicate them all!_

No, no … No…. NO… **No!** What the hell was she thinking? The mafia was a part of her. It WAS her. It was who she was. How could she hate what created her?? She let out a strangled cry again as her fingers clenched again, like clawed hooks on the dirty floorboards and she gritted her teeth. All her values in life vanished. Her morals. Her sense of justice. The injustice of the one-sided love she held for Hibari only to have it thrown back at her face. And Elia…. Oh god, don't let her get started on HER. The type of loyalty and deference she held for the Giglio Nero…. which all had now been slowly beaten down mercilessly into a pulp; and that delicate balance of good and evil. It was… wrong. It was all upside-down.

…. What was _good_ was in fact, **evil**, and what was _evil_… could be…. _Good_.

Kiriyuu let out a choked sob. Something still felt wrong about that concept, however. Mukuro was speaking again, "Deluded Ellie-chan, shot her own cousin amidst a fleeting moment of anger, hatred and confusion. Did it hurt you when she revealed to you what she truly thought about you? But it does tell you a lot about the human constitution - It tells you what they're really like, what they're hiding. Yet again, that's the nature of the humans who are ignorant fools. I honestly did expect more." He continued as he watched her. "…. Unfortunately, I have no interest in weaklings like you."

She kept quiet, still shaking with recoil on the ground.

"What were you trying to prove? Were you trying to be a 'hero' by taking the hit?" He taunted at her. "I know you could've avoided the bullet."

"I wasn't trying to be a 'hero'." She grumbled back at him, still on the floor. "I couldn't risk Elia's safety anymore, and I was aware of your plan - you wouldn't let her go unless one of us got hurt. I knew what you were planning; I'm not an idiot!!"

He smirked. "And she repays you by running away."

"… She's just a kid."

"So are you." Mukuro replied, "Kirie-chan, you are so naïve and gullible. Don't you know this world is full of horrible people out to exploit innocent individuals like you?"

"…I… I don't blame her…. Elia's a hitman too. I almost forgot about that fact. I just wanted her to live the life like an ordinary person."

Mukuro continued to watch.

"The way how she was brought up… the way we all were supposed to be brought up… lacked of the warmth and trust a family is supposed to have… she may be part of my family, but… there's always been a barrier. We… a group of collected individuals who call ourselves the Giglio Nero…. Are merely acquaintances, forced to work with one another because it is our obligation, and nothing more."

There was a strange, comforting short silence that proceeded.

Kiriyuu continued regardless, "Hitmen are cold, bloodthirsty _**killers**_. We are supposed to lack emotion; we detach ourselves from this world, stuck in our own world shut away from other, normal people, a world where rules will always control our lives and actions."

"Yes, but you are different."

"That's because I broke that one rule, and I regret it." She mumbled out. _Yes, that rule. That ONE rule. Feeling __**emotion**__. Especially for an enemy._

Mukuro let out a soft sigh.

"And now…I…I…." She murmured dolefully as she looked at the ground, and then she looked back up at him. "… I don't want you hurting Elia anymore. You can do whatever you want to me, but leave Elia out of your objectives."

He frowned, "Don't be so modest. It's starting to annoy me. Give me a reason why I shouldn't _**destroy**_ you on your spot." That mismatched eye of his gleamed an angry red.

Blood poured out from the corner of her lip, and she looked back up at him. "…. Because… you're right. You were right all along. You were right about this world."

"You were listening to me." He said - not even a question, yet again.

She nodded.

"… But you didn't agree with me."

She shook her head. "…You don't know what I've been through." Kiriyuu retorted, still breathing shakily.

He raised an eyebrow.

"But don't you dare pity me. Don't you dare." She growled, her voice growing louder in volume, "I don't need pity from the likes of you -- I don't need pity from _anyone_!" She yelled as she squeezed her eyes shut again, her wound burning.

He hesitated, though he smiled somewhat. "….I see. So what do you think of this world? Do you think it's filthy, and that it should be purged, cleansed of human sin?"

She was remembering what Mukuro said back ten minutes ago before she was brought on stage. It echoed in the hollows of her mind, never going away or getting any stronger. It struck a chord within her, and she finally understood what he meant.

She remembered it very vividly: _**This world isn't worth it.**_

"It's... not worth it."

_**It's filled with individuals who don't know their place.**_

She still didn't want to tell him her entire life story. "… But who are you to judge who is innocent, and who is guilty of 'sin'?"

_**It's soiled, tainted.  
**__**Vile.**_

He raised an eyebrow. She continued. "Who the hell do you think you are to judge something as 'good' or 'bad'…? What gives you the privilege?"

_**I will destroy those who made you miserable.  
**__**Let's erase it all.**_

He waited; she was still not finished yet.

_**There will be a place for us to go.**_

"…. And what difference will it make if one is '_good_' or '_bad_'? In the end, it's all the words they say and the actions they take which truly distinguishes, and reflects one's true motives and personality. Everything displayed on the outside is all a façade. Nobody ever takes into account of the _inside_. _Because that's the side that's always hidden_. It's the side you don't get to see. It's the side that only comes out in dire circumstance… It's selfish. It's ugly. It's cruel." She looked up at him. "…. Don't you agree?"

_**Shall we go together?**_

His expression changed; it was a half between repugnance yet mixed in with curiosity, like as if he hadn't accounted her to say something like that to him at all. "You have lost your faith." He merely replied.

She looked back down. "…. I admit that you are correct. This world is a horrible, corrupted hellhole. It's contaminated, cold, and harsh. It's unfair. And these… these people who inhabit it…. they're all just the same. The world deserves better." She muttered.

Mukuro's smile began to widen considerably as he continued to watch her.

Kiriyuu coughed up some more blood, as she looked back up to meet his gaze. He watched her back – she had obviously been through a hell of a lot, he realised, and as a result, she was becoming more and more distrusting of this world. How pitiful, seeing what she was now reduced to. Now the previous, mild interest he held was returning, perceptibly shown in those sneaky eyes of his.

"So now the only thing I'm interested in is…" She continued as she raised a hand to smear the blood from her chin, "What the _hell_ are you going to do about it, Mukuro Rokudo?"

"... Instead of telling you, I will _**show**_ you." He smirked crudely as he brushed some hair from her face; as he slowly bent down to kneel in front of her, his one knee touching her blood.

She looked up at him, then just nodded meekly.

He slowly lifted her up partially, cradling her gently, and Kiriyuu finally found that liberation and that silent consolidation she desperately desired from someone, even if it was from Mukuro Rokudo. She looked up at him little by little, her pale face peeking out, mingled with blood and tears, and suddenly, she felt very small and pathetic too. All this time…

She wanted someone to _hold_ her.  
She wanted someone to _agree _with her.  
She wanted someone who _understood_ her.

And suddenly Kiriyuu was reduced to a wretched, weak and gibbering wreck, like a child crying for a parent, sobbing uncontrollably over his clean shirt as he embraced her tenderly. His cold hand stroking her hair, the other wrapped firmly around her other, uninjured shoulder. He said, '_you really are pitiful_'. He said, '_you have been betrayed by those around you_'. He said, '_you have been exploited and taken advantage over_'. He said '_you are a victim who has now found salvation_'.

Then he said: "_**And I will destroy that miserable life of yours**_."

She felt herself drift, surprisingly feeling at ease and comfort; as her consciousness began to close in and her eyes blurred wildly. She thought she could hear something over the pain of her wounded shoulder; it was faint, a slow and slow, droning melody, burning in the back of her mind, and she let her entire body weight drop over Mukuro's lap. He gestured to his henchmen, who nodded and went to each side of the stage curtains, and began to draw them.

Her eyes closed, as the curtains lowered down; broken, richly-embroidered gold seams touching blood that spilled down the edge of the stage, dripping onto the ground below.

And the audience stood up in their seats, the sinister smiles still etched on their faces, as they abruptly burst into an ardent round of applause.

* * *

**WARNING:** After this chapter, the plot will get more diabolical, and things will start to get M-rated for strong violence and language!

Have a nice day!


	34. The Gunrunner

Exams are finally over… I'm going to try and commit at least two weeks to finish this story. Hmm, I also think this story will probably end up spanning to over Chapter 40 by the looks of it.

**Chapter 34**

_The Gunrunner_

Being carried bridal style at least once in life was one of Kiriyuu's goals in life.

Unfortunately for her, she was half-dead to fully enjoy the experience and there was nothing romantic about it at all. She was carried from the outskirts of the theatre and back outside in the surprisingly cold night before entering another establishment in the Kokuyo Health Land. The temperature was no different than outside, or the theatre at all – it was still as frigid as ever that frost was biting at her heels – and the surface he laid her on practically made her jerk in his arms in protest. He told her to calm down or he would be angry, and she quietened down somewhat, as he lifted her legs up onto the bed, stroked her hair back and then said everything would be okay.

She didn't believe him. She was going to freaking die, she thought. A bullet to shoulder wasn't life-threatening, but persistent bleeding was. And it didn't seem like they were intent on escorting her to the nearest hospital.

"Chikusa, scissors."

"Hai, Mukuro-sama." A quiet, monotone voice.

Kiriyuu continuously drifted in and out of realities; the first realm felt like soaking in a bathtub full of ice-cold water, the second realm was where she was lying on an operating table. The latter felt more realistic, especially the blinding light in her eyes. While her autopsy began, she pondered that this must be how that dead alien in the movie felt. At least her innards weren't going to be tampered with scalpels and nooks now, right? It felt like she was back on that table when she saw TYL Guiseppe and Spanner; there was a blurry shadow in front of her, a shadow on her left, one on her right.

"Mukuro-sama, is this right, pyon?" A new rough, suave voice grunted out.

Kiriyuu didn't recognise their voices as the sentences they spoke floated in her head, ending in spine-tingling echoes. "….We can't take her to hospital. They'll be suspicious as to why a girl her age has been shot by a bullet." It was the monotone voice again.

"Ne, Mukuro-sama, you are considering using your illusions for this useless girl? I mean, she got shot herself! It was her own fault, pyon."

"…. Ken…."

"Someone bring me the pliers. I have to remove the bullet."

There was another brief pause, then the shadow above Kiriyuu encompassed her form completely and she suddenly felt a cool, hard metal contraption plough into her flesh and wrench fiercely at something lodged within her. Torture, she thought, and she cried out, gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut as lukewarm tears oozed from the corner of her clenched eyes. A few seconds later and the something in her came twisting, grinding out like a screw being ripped out by the hooks of a hammer, almost as if a bone itself was being pried out of her own body. She screamed, still thrashing wildly, but someone else held her down.

"Oh gawd, she's loud."

The pain subsided almost immediately, and a loud 'clang' was heard – as if the something that was inside her had just dropped a piece of tin on the ground or something. Kiriyuu was left gasping for breath shakily, feeling scarred and infringed of dignity. A hand was slowly brushing against her sweaty forehead, stroking her hair softly once more. "The bullet's gone now, Kirie-chan."

The _what's_ gone out of the _what _now?

"Chikusa, bring me a change of clothes. There's a lot of blood." The voice above her said; the soothing, calm, eerily tranquil voice, and she felt herself surprisingly at ease at some point. She waited. There was nothing.

But then -

_Snip._ A cold metal pressed over her skin again, stopping just inches above it. She swallowed instinctively. Her blazer was then pulled a small section apart, at her wounded shoulder. Something cold was applied over her injury and she yelled again at the insane sensation that sent excruciating jolts of pain coursing down her entire body, and she lashed out violently on the bed. The hand that kept her still was joined by two hands, and she flopped back down, breathing heavily. There was a brief silence following that; the pain was slowly going away once more and then coming back, coming in tidal wave-like motions.

She could then hear some footsteps leading back outside the room.

"… Ken, stop gawking." There was a long pause. "….Yes, that is what a girl is supposed to look like." A few moments later, and footsteps re-entered the room. "….Mukuro-sama, I brought a spare shirt." The same voice said.

"Ah, thank you, Chikusa."

Someone was pulling at her blazer again now. She struggled away – but the sweltering pain took over her again and she was reduced back to an unmoving, wincing puddle in the bed. The hand kept her firmly in place.

"No, Kirie-chan, we have to change your clothes, or you'll get an infection." He said. She shook her head, still feeling nauseous and dizzy. No, no, no-one was going to change her clothes without her consent. "Hm, perhaps you would be more comfortable if there were not so many people in this room."

No, she just didn't want to get changed at all!!!

"Ken, Chikusa, you may leave us now. Thank you for your assistance; I will attend to Kirie-chan's injuries."

The two people left the room; she could hear one of them muttering and grunting incoherently under his breath. Kiriyuu was left with Mukuro. He lifted her up slowly and peeled off the blazer sleeves and then she felt something drape around her tightly – then her arms were forced into the sleeves gently. Her right arm went in first, then the left. Mukuro buttoned up the shirt for her and then drew the blanket over her shivering body.

Wait.

Kiriyuu finally opened her eyes, blinked at the ceiling slowly. The intense light above her was gone. Mukuro was bent over her, apparently fixing her arm. She wasn't alarmed at their close proximity as she stared back into those mismatched eyes of his once he pulled back, but rather at her arm. She looked down at her left shoulder, where the bullet that grazed her should be.

It wasn't there.

No blood, no bullet. No nothing. She gawked, then pawed over her arm restlessly, lifting it up and down, rotating it relentlessly in its joint shoulder slot. There was nothing. It didn't hurt. It just felt…

_Normal._

She was back to normal. She looked up at him in shock, gestured to the arm silently in a series of bizarre, Kiriyuu-body language, which included mouth-opening of a fish, and rapidly blinking in confusion. He nodded faintly, and took hold of her hand to reassure her, that everything would be okay, in that quiet, suave, very polished voice of his, and she could tell what he had done, but just didn't know **how **he had done it. But all she knew was this: _Mukuro could do anything. He was capable of anything_. _He was…. Powerful_. He really did have the power to take it all away from her.

_He took away the pain._

While she stared stupidly at her warm hand enclosed in his unnaturally cold hand, those long, windswept fingers and smooth pelt of skin of his knuckles; she tried to remember if Hibari had ever held her hand or even touched her for all that mattered. She thought, she really tried; she mustered all the brain strength from all corners but still nothing could adhere at the moment. It was simple; she was finally feeling…. important, in some way.

By someone else.

Not Hibari.

He broke her out of her thoughts when he gestured to her face this time. She blinked at him slowly again, then inquisitively; he merely smiled at her in return as he usually did. His smiles told everything, he needn't do anything else. Smiles took care of everything. Positive reinforcement.

She touched her face.

No scar.

Kiriyuu looked back up, astonished. He brought her hands down from her face slowly, and back into her lap. She just gazed upon the magnificence of this splendid creature, and he opened his mouth, as if he was going to speak, she just stared at those fine, redefined lips and that chiselled jaw.

"Kirie-chan," He ultimately began, "Now that I have done something for you… it's time you did something for me."

Whatever Mukuro says, goes, she thought. Whatever Mukuro wants, he gets. Therefore, Kiriyuu agreed without any other thoughts. It was only fair. She will help him, and he will help her. It was a trade, with both ends having their own benefits. It was B2B (Business to Business in the electronic commerce trading world, whatever), or B2C, B2G... This mafia world has to be destroyed, doesn't it? She nodded. This world was unfair and unjustified, isn't it? She nodded yet again. He had the power to do that. Did she trust him? She nodded again. Would she do anything for him? She said she would do anything for him.

She would do anything for him now.

She didn't care.

She simply didn't care anymore.

And this is just for the new world? Yes… No…. He understood her, and she wanted that, so he had another brownie point. So no, she wouldn't do anything for him just because she would do anything for the new world. He smiled at her as she went back down on the bed to lie and sleep, brushed his hand, drenched in her drying, decaying blood, through her hair and suddenly it was the best sensation in the world.

Good Kiriyuu, good Kirie-chan. Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning, hope you're feeling better, he said. She hoped she'd feel better in the morning, too. Mukuro left her bedside. He glanced off to the corner for a split moment, then switched off the light just near the door to her room. She closed her eyes. The door shut.

It felt like a dream.

In fact, everything felt like a dream. When Elia shot her, and that pain she experienced, it was all gone now. So maybe that was a dream, too. Maybe this whole thing wasn't real. Maybe getting hit by the bazooka wasn't real. Maybe meeting Spanner and finding out about her death wasn't real. Maybe Hibari wasn't real, either. Kiriyuu was probably in Italy, sleeping, stuck in a dream she couldn't wake out of.

She hoped it was all a dream.

After all, everything that had happened to her the past couple of days felt ethereal. Things like this don't happen to normal, everyday people. Then again, Kiriyuu always felt her life was not simple or ordinary.

She clutched the covers tighter.

Then the light suddenly flipped back on, and Kiriyuu re-opened her eyes.

"Hey, you."

_Huh?_

"Yes, you."

Kiriyuu sat back up. The voice had emitted from the opposite corner, at the intersections of the grimy, yellowing marbled walls, and Kiriyuu squinted her eyes as a shadowy figure emerged into the dawn, under the yellow cone of light from the small bulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling.

"Hope you weren't asleep that fast, Ottuso Kiriyuu." The quiet voice said, barely above a whisper. It was yet again, a smooth, suave voice, this time belonging to a female, "Yes, I know your name. _Kirie-chan_. Oh, little Kirie-chan. Mukuro thinks you're the most adorable thing he's ever seen."

Kiriyuu gawked at her; blue eyes, medium-long hair, mousy brown (definitely shorter than Kiriyuu's hair, obviously), Kokuyo uniform, black leather boots, like hers, but decorated with more fastens and definitely much more sophisticated than Kiriyuu. This girl was uptight about appearances. Something weird was strapped on her back, like a stick or something… or maybe it was some kind of thin sword, judging by the shape of it. She was one of Mukuro's acquaintances, too.

"You are…?"

"...They call me the Gunrunner. Ken's the half-animal, half-human freak of nature - but he's mostly 75 percent animal, and Chikusa's the geek who fiddles with yo-yos."

"I meant your name, and not anyone else, or any alias you might have."

"…Hm. Nobody's really asked me my name before. It's Tsuzuru M."

M the Gunrunner. What did the 'M' stand for? M, as in the letter of the alphabet?

"Yeah, that 'M'. What does it stand for, you ask? My name's pretty long and it's apparently a pain for people to remember. By the way, Mukuro doesn't like girls with long hair." The girl tugged carelessly yet delicately at Kiriyuu's long, flimsy locks.

Kiriyuu continued gaping as the girl flicked at her own short hair, seemingly smug with herself and she paced up and down Kiriyuu's room restlessly, her expression souring as if she was in a sewer or something. How did she get in the room anyway?

"I've been here the whole time, at the side, with Chikusa and Ken. I kept quiet as Mukuro requested, and watched him remove the bullet from your shoulder, and Ken took it away as a souvenir present but he's probably going to lick the remaining flesh and blood off because he just luuuurves to chew on people so much. I also saw the way Kakipii was staring at you; my, my, his little shady eyes were glued on your exposed shoulder the whole time. He's the one who's really never seen a girl before." M said that all very quickly, with a snort as she rubbed a plaster-covered finger under her nose.

"….. You're one of Mukuro's - "

"Yeah, I take orders from him. Hey, me and you -- We're partners from now on, okay? Ken's got Chikusa and Chikusa's got Ken. I've got you, and you've got me. Mukuro does his own solo thing."

"Oh. And you're - "

"Look, don't ask any more questions, and don't ask, or talk about me to other people because it's annoying. I won't talk about you and you won't talk about me. I keep a low profile. Everyone here does, and so should you."

"That makes sense."

"Hey, that thing on your neck – is that a lovebi – "

"No." Kiriyuu grumbled out, remembering Hibari's… urgh… mark on her from previously. It was still there.

M decided to change the subject anyway, "I saw your cousin shoot you back there. I sat in the front row. She looked so angry, and then she was so terrified. Can you believe she ran?"

Kiriyuu frowned, "Yeah, I think I saw you. And I can believe it, actually."

"… So, why are you listening to Mukuro? Just because you want the new world?"

"It's all I want."

"And you wouldn't care what he'd do just to get it?"

"Yes."

"I see. So what happened to you?"

Kiriyuu perked up at her.

"Don't give me that look." M replied haughtily with a waggle of her plastered finger, "I meant by your 'story'. We all have our stories here. We are all a bunch of misfits who were brought together by fate. Mukuro's got his background story, so does Ken and Chikusa, and I've got mine. So what's yours?"

"….." Kiriyuu, in response, looked back down at her lap where her fingers lay strewn over the duvet, clutching it tightly, "…It's complicated."

"Hn. I bet it is. Fine, if you don't feel like sharing, I'll leave you alone. You seem fine now. Your shoulder - it's been healed by Mukuro anyway. That's why you can't feel anything. And if you're wondering about the scar, well, you'll probably find out about that soon, too."

Kiriyuu didn't care about the scar anymore. All she knew was that it was gone, and he had gotten rid of it, and for that, she was grateful.

"I'll see you in the morning, if you need anything – like the bathroom or something - my room is just opposite yours. Have a nice night."

M left, leaving Kiriyuu sitting in darkness as she flicked the light switch off, the cone of yellow light disappearing almost immediately. The only light came from outside her barred window of the door – the corridor, actually – but then that light went out, too, and Kiriyuu stared into darkness, welcoming it as her green eyes adjusted to the night. From her left, she could hear something snorting and snuffling, maybe Ken. This must be their living quarters. She looked to her right; it was eerily quiet.

Somehow, a rush of sudden fury coursed through her, and she picked up a random object from her bedside table. It was sleek and cool, light in her hands, maybe a scalpel, and in a fit, she threw it against the wall, making a loud 'clang' as it connected with cold tiles, before tumbling back down to the ground.

She couldn't get to sleep that night.

**The next morning…**

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!"

Kiriyuu screamed as a ram head poked into her doorway. A ram was talking to her. Yes, a sheep. The ones with twisted, curling horns. Some kind of goat. A mountain goat.

No, not a goat.

It was a person wearing a helmet – in the shape of a ram's skull.

"It's an Ibex, if you're wondering. They're a type of mountain goat. This one's horns are a little premature so they're slightly smaller compared to other goats." She said.

It covered the wearer's entire head, leaving a few strands of brown hair at the back. It was slate grey, a few cracks in the middle of the cranium; like those fake skulls you drew in art, only the skeleton was real. She just knew it was real, and she didn't know if the eye holes were the ram's skull's empty eye sockets. The horns were quite wide in length, and curled, very curved, in half.

"I-It's a nice helmet." Kiriyuu croaked out. She actually did kind of like it. It was… gulp…cool.

"Thanks."

"Where did you get it from? Looks custom-made."

"Oh, you know how Kokuyo once had a zoo here? Yeah, they had a petting area, too. I got it from there last night. I don't know if it's a Nubian or a Siberian Ibex; the sign ended in -ian so I took a wild guess."

"It's real?!"

"Yup. But I spent the whole night cleaning and varnishing it and now it's my super-cool helmet. You're jealous, eh?"

"It's cool." Kiriyuu muttered out awkwardly.

"Here, eggs and bacon. Ken is the only one who can cook here."

"But they're all burnt."

"I said he was a cook, not a **good** cook." M lifted up the skull and rest it atop her head so she could eat.

Kiriyuu sighed as she sat up in bed. The arms of the clock on the wall ticked noisily behind the fractured glass. It was 8am, and Tsuzuru M, who Kiriyuu met last night, kicked open the door to Kiriyuu's room without knocking and barged in wearing her new ram skull which scared the crap out of Kiriyuu, with two plates stacked on top of the other in one hand, grimy cutlery in her pocket, a cup of water in the other hand. She didn't make a very good balancing waitress; she'd incorporated the clumsiness of a waitress on ice and spilled a few drops of water by accident and the plates were sliding up and down on top of each other before being placed down on Kiriyuu's side table.

"Here, take this knife and fork."

Kiriyuu stared at them; they were patched with grease and slime and she wiped them off her shirt. "Thanks." She grumbled out.

"Here, take this plate too. It's considerably less greasy than this one because I piled them up like Jenga."

The egg and bacon on the grimy plate was then promptly dumped over her lap. Surprise, surprise, the eggs were dark brown and the bacon was a dark brown in colour. She tapped the bacon with her fork – it crumbled like pebbles and withered away. M placed her own plate down on the table and began to snack noisily. Kiriyuu began tucking into her own. The egg touched her tongue.

Oh god, she thought. And she thought she was a bad cook. This was just plain awful. She looked at M; the girl's face was actually all screwed up as if she was trying to suck her tongue back down her throat as she swallowed so she wouldn't be able to taste anything. Maybe Kiriyuu should try that; it seemed to be working for M, who was now swallowing quickly and going to her next egg. The eggs were too salty, and a bit raw. She was worried about getting salmonella. The bacon tasted weird and smelt weird, too. A dull, singe-like smell with something…. Sour.

"How long have they had this bacon?"

"It's burnt, so don't worry. It's a bit like toast, see."

"… You sure?" Kiriyuu said, with her lips pursed tightly together.

"Shut up and eat."

Kiriyuu lifted up her fork, but then she looked back at M. "…. M, if you don't mind me asking – "

"What?"

"… How did Mukuro heal me? If Ken's a freak of nature, and Chikusa's a geek with yo-yo's, and you're a firearms smuggler, then – "

"Actually, I believe Ken's the result of an experiment, by combining mixed animal DNA with human DNA. Chikusa… erm, well, he swears he was experimented on but all I see is a barcode on his cheek. My hypothesis is that he was purchased by Mukuro from a human supermarket." M confided with an appreciating nod and a wave of her fork.

"And they were all…experiments?"

"You didn't know?" M said, and then she turned back to the door, as if she was checking to see if Ken was actually here or not. He wasn't, so she turned back to Kiriyuu, and waved with her fork as if telling her to come closer. Kiriyuu complied anyway, all ears to M's lips. "They're from the Estraneo famiglia. They were well known for their human experimentation and other forbidden weaponry."

Kiriyuu leant back. Experiments?? Yes, that's right. The Estraneo family. She'd heard about them from Guiseppe once. They've disbanded, actually, they're all….dead. Well, some of them went into hiding, or so she heard, to avoid persecution. "… And… what about you?" She squeaked out quietly.

"Me? I wasn't experimented on. I was from… uh… you know what, never mind. That's all in the past, and I don't like to talk about it. You wouldn't like if I asked you now, would you?"

Kiriyuu shook her head.

"Exactly," M grunted at her, "That's right, isn't it? It hurts… You don't want to think about it, because the more you do, the more you'll start to suffer…. and then you start to feel completely…. Well, different. Possessed, bitter… everything you've never felt before."

Kiriyuu looked back down.

"… You have nowhere to go, do you?" M then said, her tone changing to a more sympathetic one.

Kiriyuu nodded meekly.

M hesitated, then strained over and patted her shoulder reassuringly with a blunt smile. "Don't worry, Kiriyuu. You're at home here. We will look out for you. We've all been victims, so we understand how you feel. But we won't always be victims. No, not anymore. Because this world isn't worth it and we will erase that miserable life."

Yes, that's right. That's what Mukuro said, too. Victims. Everybody under his wing were victims.

"You do realise that what we're trying to achieve here, no-one else can see the beauty of our results?"

She nodded.

"And in order to achieve what we want, we will get rid of anyone who stands in our way?"

Yet again, Kiriyuu nodded.

"Do you trust us?"

Kiriyuu and her newly-developed nodding-dog syndrome.

"But you've only been in our care less than 24 hours."

Yes, so?

"And you have no idea who we are, what we are. _What we are capable of_. And you're perfectly okay with that? You don't care at all?"

Kiriyuu nodded again. Yeah, she trusted them or whatnot. She thought she trusted the Giglio Nero. And guess what happened? She didn't care anymore. Trust? Don't make her laugh.

M blinked blankly at her, and then - she smirked again; her lips pulling back and opening like a red slit appearing over her pale face. "Well then…. I guess we have no problems. Me and you, Kiriyuu, we're going to get along. We're going to get along just _fine_."


	35. Naraka

Hm, yeah, M.M will make her appearance soon. Urm, my exams were so-so, I managed to pass them all, luckily. I've been selling a lot of junk in Amazon, trying to make some money. Somebody bought my old Pokemon game for about 45 bucks. I'm starting to lose interest in Katekyo Hitman Reborn, and in this story, to be honest. _Nappo,_ I've inserted your interesting comment about 'Chicken' in this chapter. Heehee.

**WARNING:** You will find this chapter random and strange. But be patient. Strong language will be present in later chapters.

**Chapter 35**

_Naraka_

"I heard you crying last night. You didn't sleep at all, did you?"

Kiriyuu burned red with shame. Her bloated, puffy eyes gave it away anyway, if she decided to lie, so she just nodded meekly. "I can't put up with it anymore." She squeaked at M. "It's too much. Everything that's happened to me. Hibari… Ten years… The Giglio Nero… Elia… it's too much… and knowing that I can't do anything about it…well, it makes me…even worse."

M put a hand on her shoulder, and smiled reassuringly. "You're feeling overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, and scared. We've been through it all, but it'll be alright. You're with us now, and we don't think about the past. Only our future, and our present. I'm… sorry you had to go through that all by yourself. Nobody should, especially for someone at your age."

Kiriyuu listened.

"You should be… playing video games, going to school and kissing boys all sorts of ages." M sulked. That's because that's what M should be doing too. But noooo, she's here. Oh god.

Kiriyuu smothered at her eyes, and then she tried to laugh, but it came out as breathless gasps and wheezes as tears began to leak out of her eyes again. "…I'm…I'm actually really glad… that you're here for me, M."

"….." The girl rolled her eyes, "Yeah, well, uh… I… er…"

Kiriyuu smiled helplessly at her awkardness. She hadn't smiled much for some time. She actually…. Liked M.

"… You're starting to feel it, aren't you?"

"A case of unnecessary floozies?" Kiriyuu blurted out awkwardly. This would be a good time for M and Kiriyuu to hug each other and go 'UWAGH' and start crying over other stupid problems.

"What? NO." M snorted at her, rolling her eyes.

Kiriyuu was confused when she said that. Then '_feel' _what? But then she guessed that M weren't those sensitive types of girl. They've been talking for some time anyway, and Kiriyuu was so engrossed with her conversations with M that she hadn't finished eating; actually, she hadn't really eaten much. After tasting Ken's egg, she was sure she didn't want it. Besides, talking to M was… fun. It wasn't just Mukuro who seemed to understand Kiriyuu, M also did, too.

"Mukuro." M replied, with that shrewd broadening smile of hers. She herself was a petite girl around Kiriyuu's height, taller, and probably older than Kiriyuu a year, just the same age Mukuro was. Her smile was also almost identical to Mukuro's, but it was more crude, somewhat sinister, disturbing, and hiding so much secrets behind a false, facial façade despite how nice she had been over the past few hours. "Don't tell me you can't feel IT."

Feel _what_??

"The inevitable attraction." She whispered, her eyes glittering, "Mukuro does that. Everyone likes him. You can't help it but like him in some way. He's attractive, like a magnet, _oh yes_. And you can't help but feel the gravitational PULL. But there's something _**more**_, isn't there? He makes you think you're **special**. He recruited you. Therefore you are special to him."

Is that how it's like?

"When I first met Mukuro, nobody loved me. Nobody cared about me. Nobody looked my way. I was used and stepped on. I was naïve and stupid. And then Mukuro came and he saw my potential. He told me the error of my ways and made me feel special. And valued."

Value? And… you're sure he's not a shrink?

"He's not a shrink. He's something more. He's not a hero for rescuing damsel in distresses like us, either; he's something a little less. But what his intentions, what he wants to achieve, is heroic."

Heroic?

"Don't you know that 'value' makes the world go round? Think fast."

….Eh? Think… fast? Must be M's motto or something.

"I actually mean that quite literally. In business, the stock market rules everything. People – any sorts of people - own shares. Shares are 'values' of a business. If shares drop, that business is nothing. Equity investors, capital, appropriations for profit, fixed assets and liabilities, all these stuff, won't mean anything _**anymore**_."

Kiriyuu blinked. Really?

"Yes, really. But we ain't talking about business. We're talking _psychological_. It's what every human being desires. The feeling of being valued, and loved, and feeling special. Not an ego boost, but a sense of identity and worthwhile. A sense of what being human is all about, perhaps." M continued, and Kiriyuu was hanging onto her every word, "After all… if no-one loves you, why the hell should you even be alive?"

Kiriyuu looked down once she said that, seemingly disgruntled with herself. Nobody seemed to love me, she thought. "…Does everyone here preach to others like that?"

M let out a snort of laughter. "Just relax. It's Mukuro. He does that to you. In fact, he changes everything about you."

"…..I see." Kiriyuu realised how much of an unperturbed person M really was.

"No, you don't see. I saw the way how you broke down in his arms. You were crying so hard. And you held onto him very tightly - like this - " She pressed her fingers together and clutched them firmly, like as if she was imitating crab claws, "You held him so tightly that you almost choked him. You needed him. You needed someone to hold you. You needed someone to protect you. You wanted somebody to love you. You wanted someone to give you attention. You wanted it. And you got it. Damn, you must've been in some pretty deep shit."

Kiriyuu looked away from M awkwardly, "Yeah, I… kinda was in some pretty big…. Shit." She mumbled out uncomfortably at the word, "…What else about Mukuro? Tell me more." For Kiriyuu, this was exactly like listening to stories about superheroes and their triumphs.

M glimpsed at Kiriyuu briefly without moving her head; she just moved her black, beady eyes, and god, that stare was strong, chilling to the bone, and creepy…. Kiriyuu swallowed. M swallowed down whatever she had in her mouth as well. "Ask him more yourself. Sit on his knees and ask for a bedtime story about how he saved a bunch of enslaved people by killing all the baddies."

Kiriyuu didn't get the 'joke' and just blinked blankly at her in return, "He probably won't tell me much."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to ask now, would it?"

"No, I… guess…. It wouldn't."

"If you're going to ask him, don't tell him I prompted you to. Got it?"

Suddenly, loud thumps on the door could be heard, and Kiriyuu looked back up. "Who's that?"

"Probably Ken -- Go away, Ken, we're eating!" M yelled coarsely, without looking behind her shoulder. The thumps became much more frantic and increasing in volume in response. "Go away!"

"I'll go." Kiriyuu said, and she put her plate down, then crawled out of the bed. She paused. Her shoulder really didn't hurt anymore. And she felt fine. Light as day, in fact. She tottered up to the door, which had a barred window at the top, and she could see tufts of poky-blonde hair sticking out. She opened the door to face the animal-looking boy with a pinky in his ear. "Um. Morning." She said awkwardly.

"How'd you like them eggs and bacon, eh?" He said, with a grin as he lazily pulled out his finger from his ear canal.

"…. They're…uh…" She had never been a critic on food. Food was just food. But Ken's food was awful food.

M was still eating, never looking over her shoulder, but that didn't stop her from making her own statements, "Tell him that crap on the streets taste even better than this shit."

Kiriyuu swallowed back a giggle at M's comment, turned back to her front. Ken didn't hear. It was good he wasn't on any animal channel blessed with acute hearing. "They're fine. A bit….um, on the salty side, but they're really good." She added quickly.

He seemed somewhat pleased, "Oh yeh? I cook 'em with vegetable oil, not animal oil. Okay then… hey, you know about Mukuro's orders, right?"

"Yeah, I've to go back to the house and get some stuff."

"Yeh, that's right, pyon. Continue like that and you won't be any more trouble. See ya later."

When Ken left, Kiriyuu shut the door and returned back to her bed, her breakfast was gone. "Hey, you ate all my food, M."

"You're not even hungry. If you were, you would've begun eating this shit like a pig in a matter of seconds but you didn't."

Kiriyuu frowned. M had now almost finished Kiriyuu's breakfast, leaving all the bacon fat on her plate. Kiriyuu didn't feel like eating anymore anyway; M looked back at Kiriyuu, as if she was expecting her to say something.

"Still angry about me stealing your grub? To be honest, I did you a favour. I saved you from potential food poisoning."

"…You're a brutally honest person, M." Kiriyuu grumbled out instead.

"Yeah?" M replied, flicking a glance to her, as she picked up the last piece of Kiriyuu's fried egg and put it into her mouth. Then she finally turned to Kiriyuu, chewing first at the left side of her mouth. "…Well, you're not a very good liar."

……………..

Kiriyuu and M went up to the main floor of the Kokuyo Health land building after breakfast. The building was really ugly. It was the largest, featuring a small cinema, and was roughly 15 stories high, with half of the windows smashed and all the stairs practically withered to oblivion. A lot of freestyle-climbing and abseiling was improvised just to reach the 'headquarters', including Kiriyuu dangling off a pipe for her life while M expertly navigated her way up.

Once they arrived, Kiriyuu was sure she'd burnt off all the calories she'd received from her half breakfast. Mukuro, Chikusa and Ken were already there, having finished breakfast, too. Now a stack of dishes piled up as M described as 'Jenga-style' were on the table. Mukuro had this morning's newspapers in front of him, and Ken and Chikusa were now bickering over a game of Janken (Rock, paper, scissors, and Ken was the one bickering, not Chikusa, obviously) to determine who would wash the dishes. Ken lost three times.

She watched them quietly as M pulled over a chair and sat down to Mukuro's left, looking at her polished nails carefully. Kiriyuu stood limply at the doorway, letting the frigidness of the room take over her. _Dysfunctional family_, she thought. _How did these people even come together?_

"You're here," Mukuro put down his newspaper, and beckoned her over with a small 'hook motion' of his index finger, "Did you eat?"

"… Yeah." She nodded anyway as she took the chair opposite M, to Mukuro's right. She actually really didn't feel too hungry. Maybe it was because she had eaten a lot yesterday…

"I brought the breakfast to her." M said, stopping beside Mukuro and looking up at the other girl. "Isn't that great, Kiriyuu? I do breakfast-in-bed service. And it's just for you too."

Kiriyuu gave a light-hearted shrug in response, "It really felt like breakfast in bed. Um, good service, I… uh, think."

"I'm flattered, shall I do that for your dinner too?" M giggled out playfully.

"… That's not really necessary now, is it? This isn't a hotel." Mukuro replied as he turned away towards Kiriyuu; he had a light smile playing on his lips.

She felt as if a brick had hit her head once Mukuro resumed in reading the headlines about 'TRAIN COLLISION FIREBALL' before turning to the back page to complete the Sudoku. The feeling came to her like a train head-on collision. She felt unnaturally warm, her temperature soaring to Fireball-level. It felt like the harsh slap of reality. But it wasn't pain she was feeling. It was something else. Her heart began to pick up pace as she gawked at him, this perfect specimen sitting in the chair. His perfect hands holding the newspaper, his perfect fingers flipping over the page one by one. His perfect lips lifting up when his perfect eyes scanned a short 3-column comic strip.

Damn it.

Maybe she did have a crush on Mukuro; just a tiny, harmless little one. But she wasn't going to act on it and start stalking him, or hint to him that perhaps she did like him, or flirt with him or anything else. No, Kiriyuu was feeling far too low in self-esteem to do any of the sorts, and she was tired, exhausted to go on. Besides, what about Hiba – Ahem. She just thought Mukuro was courageous and…uh…. Kiriyuu couldn't think of a proper word to describe it, but she just knew that she did feel **IT **and - She snapped out. She remembered M's words vividly.

_You feel it, don't you? Mukuro. Don't tell me you can't feel IT – _

Holy shit, Kiriyuu thought. I do feel **IT**. M was right.

_- The inevitable attraction._ _Mukuro does that. Everyone likes him. You can't help it but like him in some way. He's attractive, like a magnet, oh yes. And you can't help but feel the gravitational __PULL__. But there's something __**more**__, isn't there? _

Yes, that too, but there really was something more to Mukuro that Kiriyuu liked.

_He makes you thinks you're __**special**__. He recruited you. _

_Therefore __you__ are special to __him_.

……………….

Back in Kiriyuu's room, they were supposed to be preparing, when M, who was sitting on her bed, briefly turned to her. I will go over a quick introduction to what will happen over the next few days, she told Kiriyuu. But I want you to do press-ups. You will concentrate more when you're doing exercise. Kiriyuu listened, and M spoke, "I want you…. to think about the time you were in the Giglio Nero." She said, now turning back to her front and clasping her hands together, "I know it may bring back bad memories, but I want you to concentrate. What betrayed you has also sculpted you into a living, breathing machine bent to do whatever your heart desires."

Kiriyuu was concentrating on both tasks, executing press-ups as M requested, her cold palms splayed over the grimy floor. She didn't really mind.

M was now jumping up and down on the bed. "What. YOU. Learned. During. Your. Time. In. The. Giglio. Nero. You. Cannot. Forget. That. Is. Their Ultimate. Mistake. And. You. Will. Make. Sure. They. Rot. In. HELL!" She said with each land and spring on the bed. Kiriyuu hearing the annoying 'squeaky-squeaky' of the bed hinges now and then.

She tried to remember what she did learn in the Giglio Nero, and during that time in Hitman Academy. It was, indeed, a lot. It was so much, she didn't even know where to start. She also wondered why M was talking about this now.

M stopped leaping up and down and sat back, smoothing down her skirt and hair, "You are neither perfect nor imperfect." M resumed normally, and Kiriyuu was still listening, listening to every single word, "You are a shit-infested little bugger like all those cooped up in the mafia. But you want to change that."

Kiriyuu took one arm behind her back, still doing press-ups.

"Only if you accept that you are unworthy of this world, will you succeed. With your redemption, the next world will welcome you anew." M said, "The mafia can only be destroyed by those who had once been within their influence of power. The mafia is a complicated network of underground activities and alliances, consumed by individuals filled with treacherous natures and personalities overrun by greed and selfish motives. It has to be destroyed, with our bare hands, and what they have inclined to us. Without us, the mafia are nothing, just a myth, a mere word in the dictionary given personality by interrelationships. We made up the mafia. We complete them."

"We are – " M paused, "Okay, that's enough. Don't want you becoming a buffed-up gladiator now. We still have to go back to your house as Mukuro ordered."

Kiriyuu shook her head, continuing the press-ups procedure. M rolled her eyes again.

"… And we are the new order. We will rewrite history, we will determine who lives and who dies, we will save mankind, just us. Us two, Mukuro. And those two combined, I suppose. Chicken or whatnot. Heh heh heh."

**Afterwards…**

A drastic change from austere drill sergeant to common acquaintance, M and Kiriyuu made their ways from Kokuyo Health Land towards Kiriyuu's house. "I still can't believe we've to come all the way to this godforsaken neighbourhood just to get garbage." M moaned out. She had been receiving odd stares in the street because she was wearing her skull helmet.

Kiriyuu rolled her eyes and continued making her way down back the road. Kiriyuu's belongings were _not_ garbage. It was probably a good idea to go back so she could see if Elia and returned home at all anyway. Yet Kiriyuu guessed she probably hadn't. M had also beseeched more about Mukuro to Kiriyuu on the way to the house.

"You're always talking about Mukuro. What about yourself?" Kiriyuu asked.

"What about myself?" M retorted. "What do you want to know?"

Kiriyuu pondered, "I'll get round to it."Once they arrived at the front door, Kiriyuu realised it was locked. Typical. She reached inside her pocket for the keys.

M stopped her, and said, "No, not keys."

"How will we get in?"

She grinned. "We'll break in."

"…Break into my godfather's house? Not a good idea, M."

"You know you want to." M replied without flinching, and she made her way towards the back door.

"Hey. Hey! Get back here."

She wasn't listening, and they stopped outside one of the windows – the dining room window, in fact. "May I?" M asked, lifting a wooden plank from the side of the garden; Guiseppe must've been doing some woodwork in the yard.

Kiriyuu sighed. "Fine, whatever floats your boat."

"Say that again and I'll cut your tongue in half." She rolled her eyes at Kiriyuu. "Stand back." Kiriyuu did so as she swung the wooden plank effortlessly, as if she was weighing it first, and then she nodded. Then took a step forward and swung – a complete, smooth roundhouse of both arms with her hands firmly attached to the bottom length of the wooden plank, and it struck the middle of the glass of the window, and Kiriyuu winced as the window completely shattered under the brute force, and M swung back, with another grin, as fragments of glass pooled down onto the yard below.

"You first." M said, gesturing to the now-broken window as she slotted the wooden plank back where she got it from. "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure no-one will bother to see who's broken into another house. This area of Kokuyo has so many burglaries that no-one really gives a shit anymore."

Kiriyuu raised an eyebrow at her extensive knowledge of the district. "…Okay. You live around here?"

M shrugged.

"…. Right." Kiriyuu replied, then turned to the window and proceeded in heaving her bodyweight up to the sill, avoiding broken glass. "There's lots of glass here, so be careful."

"Pfft. You be careful, you wuss."

Kiriyuu scaled through, head first and hands down, then she brought her knees up and finally tucked them inside, however, she accidentally placed a palm down and a shard of glass cut through. "Ow!" She winced, as soon as she dropped to the floor of the house, now nursing her cut hand.

"Hey, you okay?" M asked as she clambered in after Kiriyuu.

"Yeah," The other girl replied, cradling her bleeding hand, then she looked up. M's hand and knees were also scraped with blood from the glass, too. Kiriyuu then shook her head at her dismissively. Now Kiriyuu's little cut on her hand seemed nothing to worry about. "Let's continue."

M and Kiriyuu split up – M went to the kitchen and lounge while Kiriyuu went upstairs. Elia was missing from her room, as predicted. Her bed was still unmade which meant she really hadn't come home at all. Elia's room was filled with junk; Kiriyuu knew nothing was missing or misplaced. A weird smell in the air, like pickles mixed with sweat, and stale egg. The window was closed, trapping the room in egg-pickle, sweaty miasma.

Kiriyuu ignored the rest of Elia's room and entered her own room. She could hear M opening the fridge downstairs and she knew the girl was rifling through and probably stealing a few gelatine desserts Guiseppe had kept for Elia and Kiriyuu; nrngeghhh… Kiriyuu didn't care much about orange jelly or Munch Bunch yoghurt anymore and closed the door of her room behind her. She saw the diary lying on top of the bedside table and blinked slowly, then promptly ran towards it. She fished out the keys which she kept inside the pocket of her suitcase that was in the corner, and flipped the little book open.

_SPANNER. HELP ME. HELP ME. HELP ME. HELP ME._

A whole page was dedicated to those words. Strange, she didn't recount herself writing that over and over again. Kiriyuu flipped over more pages. Cryptic drawings of bizarre shapes and a horde of mixed words, abbreviations, and numbers like '2' and 'Unconditional'. Then, a piece of folded paper dropped down on the floor, over her toes. Kiriyuu hesitated, then she bent over and picked it up before unfolding it.

**MEMORANDUM**

**From:** Irie Shouichi

**To:** Spanner

**Date:** 09883434/38292/4/344545454437890

_Ottuso Kiriyuu officially labelled as Giglio Nero human guinea pig in future-ruining experiment. _

The file dropped out of her hands immediately and she stepped back, swallowed a lump down. Kiriyuu rifled through her diary again; that memorandum was not the only one. There was another piece of paper lodged within the pages of her diary, and she slowly took that out, too. It read:

**In Your Closet**

What about her closet? Kiriyuu put down the piece of paper, slowly turned to the closet that was also part of her wall. Two doors, sleek oak doors painted in dabbled white with brass knobs. She watched it curiously, waiting for something to pop out and scare her. Nothing happened.

Downstairs, she could hear that M had broken something and was now apologising yet cursing colourfully; maybe it was Guiseppe's flower vase. Back upstairs, Kiriyuu inched towards her closet, and she grasped the doorknob, then pulled the first door open. There was nothing there. Kiriyuu stepped inside, and peeked in; just dark, empty space. Nothing.

**BANG!**

She whipped her head back round. This time, it was too near to be from M, or from downstairs. It sounded like it came from Elia's room; she rushed towards the girl's room, and stopped at the doorway. Nothing wrong there, too.

It occurred to her that she was still clutching her diary for some reason as she tried to pinpoint any difference to Elia's room. There was really nothing wrong; nothing misplaced or missing. The window was still shut. Clothes on the floor, crisp packets on the desk, pens and paper everywhere. She looked at her diary in her hand, and then the look turned into one of absolute hatred.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!"

_Damn the Giglio Nero._

Her fingers gripped a few pages and she promptly ripped them out. The thin edges sliced at her finger tips; she didn't care. Drops of dot-sized blood splat over the wafer-thin paper, staining the entries, mingling with pen ink.

"ALL. YOUR. FAULT!"

_Damn you, Spanner._

She ripped some more out. Pages were flying around her as she ripped and ripped, up into the air and everywhere. A paper whirlwind. A beautiful, paper whirlwind.

"YOUR _FAULT_!"

_Damn you, Hibari Kyouya._

She'd ripped her entire diary in half and all the entries were now scattered jigsaw pieces. She threw the remaining pages in the air, dumped the book on the ground. It went slamming, having landed on the thick spine.

"YOUR FAULT!!! YOUR FAULT YOUR FAULT YOUR FAULT!!!"

_**DAMN EVERYTHING!!!!**_

Then she collapsed on the spot, pages still fluttering around her. She closed her eyes, exhausted all of a sudden, and then she hugged herself, curling into a foetal position. She cried again. She lay there for a long time, and she felt herself drifting, like sleeping. Before you fall asleep, you may feel as though you're falling somewhere deeper, or if you're spiralling, spiralling in circles and circles and circles and -

Someone rocked her fiercely by the shoulder, and she opened her eyes weakly. "…M?"

The girl lifted Kiriyuu from the floor. "… You were screaming."

"I heard something. Like a door slamming."

"It wasn't me."

"You sure?"

M sighed at her question. "Why would I do such a thing? You think I get kicks from messing with your psyche? Oh, please. I'm not shallow. Besides, it's just us in the house; I saw no-one come in. I was downstairs, raiding your fridge. I didn't slam any doors or bang into anything, I swear. When I went upstairs after taking your strawberry Jell-O, you had fainted. You looked like you were sleeping."

"Sleeping?" Kiriyuu rubbed at her eyes, then groped at the floor blindly to try and hoist herself up, using M's outstretched hand for support. Suddenly, Kiriyuu stopped.

"….What?"

"Is somebody following us?"

"I'm… not sure." M replied surly, then turned to the open door. "I didn't see anyone."

Kiriyuu pondered. "Where did you find me?"

"In your room."

"My room? …I'm in my room." _What? I somehow levitated from the landing into my room? A ghost carried me to my room? I sleep-walked into my room? I don't sleepwalk. Or otherwise, Hibari would've known and told me already._

"Yes, you're in your room."

"You …moved me… into my room?" Kiriyuu exclaimed breathlessly.

"No." M gave her a dirty look, "Look. What the heck is wrong with you? Don't tell me I have a complete psycho freak for a partner. Oh god, I'm right, aren't I? Wow, good work, Mukuro, you've recruited a total loony bin… Next time just hand out forms and ask them for details instead of personal selection, m'kay?"

Kiriyuu mumbled something out unsurely, M couldn't hear – she didn't want to know. Yes, her partner was probably crazy now, and she rolled her eyes at Kiriyuu, who looked around herself again, at the floor. There was no ripped-out paper, and Kiriyuu looked at her hands - there were no paper-cuts. Then she looked at her bedside table.

Her diary was lying there, intact.

* * *

The next chapters are going to be boringly Kiriyuu-centric again.

It's also going to get a lot more confusing; just imagine the theme tune of Lost playing at the end of each chapter. Lol.


	36. Kokuyo Kiriyuu

Sometimes, I think I take this story far too seriously. And here is some Hibari in this chapter.

**Chapter 36**

_Kokuyo Kiriyuu_

They were suddenly back in the Screamer Woods again; and the smoke withered away. He was alone, in the same t-shirt and jeans he was wearing back at the camping trip. Tsuna could do nothing but gape helplessly. Opposite him, in Kiriyuu's place, a woman with cascading waves of brown hair tumbling loosely past her shoulders stood silently. Her black blazer hugged her figure tightly, a gas mask strapped over her face, exposing a solid, emerald, soulless eye. Her fingers curled tightly, the moonlight gleaming off a sultry ring on her finger which began to glow a furious red.

"I have come 10 years from the future to exterminate the 10th generation of the Vongola." She said, removing the gas mask slowly to reveal her face. He remembered that scar on the left cheek, and her green eyes – but this time, the left eye was replaced with a glowing red pupil with the Dying Will flame, glaring right into him. "Starting with the 10th Vongola boss himself!"

And then an arrow that snapped out of her Dark Crossbow was hurtling towards him, and Tsuna screamed, bringing his arms up in front of his face protectively.

"AAARRRGHHHH! NO, KIRIYUU, NuuuoooOOOoooOO!!!"

He woke up in a cold sweat. His eyes darted left to right; there was no arrow flying at him, no trees, no Older Kiriyuu, no Terminator red eye. His room was dark, it was still only about 2am in the morning, and rain was pouring on his bedroom window. He groaned inwardly and rubbed at his eyes.

_Just a dream…. Just a dream… _He reassured himself as he flopped back in his bed. _That was a weird dream -- TYL Kiriyuu exterminating the Vongola. When I met her, she was still pretty friendly (…well… sort of), and she even saved my life…._

…Though, it still felt pretty realistic.

**That Morning, in Namimori…**

Tsuna was too afraid to dial Hibari; not as if he knew his number… or as if he really wanted to call Hibari anyway (urgh). He knew Kiriyuu's cell phone number, but her phone was switched off even though it had been at least three or four days. Her departure certainly sparked many questions, and school just wasn't the same anymore. Did Hibari do something to her (well, aside from ripping at her face with his tonfa)? She seemed so angry, and had so many troubles she wasn't willing to share with them. The least he could do was see if she was alright… but no, that was not it.

… Last night, there had been news that Namimori students were getting beaten up –

For Hibari; he woke up the next morning, received numerous, frantic calls from his Committee that a few prefects had been beaten up. Nevertheless, he casually got dressed for school as he normally did. In the bathroom, he opened his mirror cabinet only to discover a box of tampons were also stuffed in the cabinet, too; right in the top shelf, sticking out in front of his face with its multi-coloured plastic wrapper, complete with odd diagrams that were the instructions…. He hesitated to take it out and dump it in the trashcan, but…

Touching it felt like taboo.

Hmph.

Damn it… that girl… he knew - That stupid girl knew something he didn't, Hibari thought as he slammed the cabinet back shut. Otherwise, why did she choose to run away at this specific time? It was quite obvious that there was something extremely wrong with this situation. Hmm, let's see – Kiriyuu runs away, a few days later, people in Namimori get beaten up for no apparent reason. There was some kind of connection. Maybe she went into hiding, knowing what was going to happen. That was typical.

Last night, Hibari could not get to sleep for at least the remainder of the night. A part of him knew that Kiriyuu was probably gone for good, and he knew he shouldn't bother looking for again this time. Where would she stay? She would run back to him, like how she always did no matter what happened; except from the time when he found her at the bridge, but that was different. In the dead of the night, roughly at about 3am, there had been a thunderstorm, 90mph hurricanes and another typhoon along the houses of Namimori shoreline; quite bizarre weather reports, actually. Namimori was usually pretty safe. Well, it would be fatal for Kiriyuu if she decided to camp at the beach. They'd probably find her drowned, pale, bedraggled body covered in seaweed in a cove, discovered by children playing kicky-bag and had kicked their bag all the way over.

He stopped thinking about last night and went into the kitchen. He habitually made breakfast for two and laid the plate down. After breakfast, he dumped the leftovers, put on his shoes, made his way to school. Then more reports came in on the way.

Tsuna had been spotted by Hibari walking through the street to school; all the other, remaining, non-victimized prefects were standing around too, looking nervously, in fact. "Eh? Hibari-san? Kiriyuu's… not… back yet?"

"No."

Tsuna glanced at Reborn, and back. He then wondered if Hibari was worried about Kiriyuu. He also wondered whether or not he should tell Hibari that he had a dream about Older Kiriyuu trying to kill him. Probably not.

"Hibari, I had a dream about Kiriyuu yesterday."

Oops. Tsuna mentally slapped himself. How wrong that sounded. Why did he do that? Especially when he decided that he was going to NOT tell him about the dream? And especially when Hibari and Kiriyuu were perhaps more than just cousins.

Hibari gave Tsuna a look.

_A murderous one. _

Reborn gave Tsuna a look as if he was a pervert. Tsuna then realised himself how wrong that came out. "N-No, it wasn't anything like that! S-She was… We were back in the woods, see? And she-she was, um… going to kill me with that crossbow gun she had and – "

Hibari didn't seem to display much concern, and promptly turned away from the duo. Tsuna sighed a breath of relief inwardly. Then Hibari's phone rang – it also had the school's anthem as the ringtone - Tsuna just cringed visibly. He turned back to Reborn.

"Why did you tell Hibari about your dream?" The infant asked him.

Tsuna bit his lip. "I… I think Kiriyuu's disappearance….may be related to her future self. Back in the woods, the camping trip… I think something must've happened."

Hibari suddenly turned back to the pair, and Tsuna immediately stiffened. "He's an acquaintance of yours, right?"

He blinked numbly in response. "Huh?"

"….Sasagawa Ryohei was attacked." Hibari said, flipping down his mobile phone once the conversation was over. He was actually a little relieved to hear no news from Kiriyuu; if she hadn't been beaten up yet or found with trembling with pneumonia in a cardboard box somewhere (it had already been two days). He watched Tsuna gasp – then the colour drained away from his face – he stepped back, his mouth gurgled, then he hurried towards the clinic.

Hibari watched Tsuna and the baby, then -

"Hibari-senpai!"

He turned round; it was his one of fellow subordinates who had been patrolling the north-western Namimori bus route borders. His eyes narrowed at the boy as he stopped shortly in front of him, breathing heavily. "Status report." Hibari said, "_Hurry up_."

"Hai, Hibari-senpai! ….Well, another student was just attacked in the corner of 8th Avenue! He's still conscious! He says it was a student from Kokuyo who attacked him!! And…. And…."

"And what?"

"……………. Apparently they've… they've taken Ottuso Kiriyuu as a hostage."

Silence. Hibari promptly frowned. "Move," he shoved the boy away from his path, stormed through the street as he pulled his prefect jacket over his shoulders.

…………

Kiriyuu, and M, left the house to meet up with Chikusa and Ken, who were supposed to meet them at the scramble crossing near Kokuyo High. Kiriyuu didn't take her diary; she wondered if it was normal to be scared of an inanimate object. And previously, she'd laughed at people with phobias of buttons and bananas, and here she was, terrified of her own diary. She still didn't know what happened back there but she didn't think she cared at all; M was teasing her mercilessly about it. You're losing it, Kiriyuu, M said. Don't worry, I won't tell Mukuro. M had also taken Kiriyuu's sniper rifle with her, wrapped in newspaper with elastic bands, even though Kiriyuu didn't want to bring it along, yet M took the matter onto her own hands and attached the sniper rifle over her own back. Kiriyuu was carrying food supplies and a wallet-full of her own pocket money.

To make her feel better, M even let her wear the helmet… not that it really did cheer her up… much.

"What is Mukuro's plan?" Kiriyuu asked, her voice muffled behind the ram skull.

"I told you not to ask any questions. Low profile, remember? It's like secret underworld activity, we're our own mafia. We make our own rules." M said, as soon as they arrived at the designated destination. The crossing was surprisingly empty of people; maybe because it was the hour when everyone should be at work or school.

"…We're our own mafia…" Kiriyuu murmured to herself; she really did like the sound of that. _We make our own rules._

"Besides, Mukuro doesn't talk much about his plans, just tells us what to do."

They stopped at the edge of the street, where Mukuro's two lackeys from yesterday eventually emerged; the weird, animal-like one was named Joushima Ken, with tacky blonde hair and hairclips, sharp canines and an extra-long tongue. Beside him, was the quiet one with glasses, black hair, white beanie hat – Kakimoto Chikusa, if she remembered what M had said clearly. Joushima Ken was the one who liked to chew on people, and Kakimoto Chikusa was the one who looked like he was castrated. They were all wearing Kokuyo uniforms. Kiriyuu squinted her eyes as soon as they appeared and she'd just realised that Chikusa was the one she'd bumped into at the Summer Festival. Funny how she remembered that seemingly insignificant fact now.

Maybe it was fate that brought her to Mukuro.

"Hey, ya finally here. Been waiting long?" Ken began and she burst out of her thoughts, as he grinned at her with his tongue waggling out and about. "Nice helmet, pyon."

While Kiriyuu just blinked at him sluggishly and murmured her 'thanks, but it's not mine', M looked very disgusted by his behaviour and made a face. "Yuck, put that thing back where it belongs, Ken." She pointed at his tongue.

Kiriyuu wasn't doing anything, listening to M's crude remark.

Ken's expression soured in response, and he turned to Chikusa, who had remained silent the entire time. "What's her problem, pyon?"

"…. Never mind her." Chikusa muttered.

Ken shrugged inwardly, then turned back to Kiriyuu. "Kiwi-chan."

"It's Kiri – "

"_**Kiwi**_." He insisted with a spiteful leer, and Kiriyuu just looked back at the ground, accepting her new nickname without any other objections, "Mukuro-sama's got new orders for ya. You've to go back to the Health Land. Says he can't have you running around when you're still recovering."

"I think I'm okay."

"Oh, yeh? Then that means you don't need anyone to take you back, right? You remember your way?"

Kiriyuu looked at M, who snorted at 'Chicken'; in return 'Chicken' gave Kiriyuu another long stare. Kiriyuu nodded eventually; with M here, she was pretty sure she would take Kiriyuu back. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Great, we'll be back soon, yeh? You tell Mukuro-sama that. Don't get into trouble, pyon."

"Where are you guys going?" She asked.

Ken pulled out a list from the breast pocket of his blazer, still grinning, and he wiggled it in front of her face. "We got a hit list, pyon."

"Hit list?"

"People in our way. We have to get rid of them. Or teach them a lesson or two. That's what Mukuro says." It was M who replied, with a half-hearted sigh.

"Yeah, that's a hit list." Ken dangled the paper in front of her face again, "C'mon, Kakipoo. Let's get those little piggies." Ken began making his way back down. Chikusa just irked in response, and followed Ken silently down the street, after giving Kiriyuu another brief stare. Kiriyuu and M waved them off, and M turned back to Kiriyuu, grinning now. She elbowed the girl thoroughly, the grin widening.

"I think Chikusa has a little crush on you."

In response, Kiriyuu just rolled her eyes exasperatingly and looked away from the retreating backs of Chikusa and Ken. "Let's go back already."

There was slight hesitation from the other girl, and Kiriyuu turned to her expectantly. M gave her an awkward grin in response, "Oh, no, I'm staying, actually. I have my own errands to run. I'll see you back at Kokuyo. You know your way back, right?" M asked, having dumped the rest of Kiriyuu's belongings into her arms.

Kiriyuu looked back up in shock. "But I thought – " Her jaw dropped slightly as she took her own stuff back from M, but then – "… Yeah, I know the way… I, uh…think."

M frowned, "Okay, you look absolutely clueless; I'll take you back, alright? But this'll be the last time – and the first, actually – but after this, you're on your own."

**Back in Namimori…**

Many questions stormed Hibari's conscious and he growled under his breath. First, he hated feeling lost and as if he had completely no control over this epidemic of attacks, and second, why the hell did his life have to revolve around Ottuso Kiriyuu at some point? He remembered back to the very first time they met - he knew it, he realised; he should've just slammed the front door in their faces when he had the chance. He did it to that Ryuki girl who probably was his real cousin when she came up to his doorstep with that overweight, wretched man of a social worker named Kenji – why the hell…? Argh, never mind. What's done has been done. Let bygones be bygones, right?

Hibari made his way to the corner of 8th Avenue – it was near the suburbs of Kokuyo – and there was the victim, surrounded by a group of neighbourhood locals. He shoved them away and ordered them to call an ambulance instead of just gawking there and gazing upon the splendour of a half-dead prefect with a random number of teeth pulled out.

It was Yagami; the prefect who had joined recently, having being recommended by his brother and emerged being only capable of goldfish-memory-that-lasted-3-seconds memory (after intensive intervention and _Prefect_ 'OB' programmes) and always forgot to sign off his name in the list after school. He was also the one who was far too sensitive and compassionate for his goddamn good. How he was in the Committee was something worth to ponder about. The prefect opened his bruised eyes groggily, as he lay spread-eagled on the sidewalk.

"Hibari-thenpai. You're here."

Hibari watched him stonily, "Where is Kiriyuu?"

"Yeth, yeth. Phee wath here. Kiriyuu Ottutho wath here. I recognithe her fayth back at the training camp, but thumthing thelt wrong." He lisped, spraying saliva and blood all over the place.

He knelt down beside his comrade; the first rule – don't touch people who have been in an accident unless you were a trained paramedic or had a PHD in medicine or something because you'd risk unleashing more hellish pain on the poor sods without even realising. His lackey looked like he could've seen better days. His head and face battered and bruised, swollen to the size of a melon; his mouth chock-full of saliva and blood, with the several teeth missing just like the other victims.

Hibari asked, his eyes narrowing in progress, "I said: _Where is she?_"

The battered prefect let out a weak cough "…. I thaw her from a dithtance away though. Phee wath with… theef unidentified Kokuyo thtudenth. They were carrying thingth. I went down to thee. They took her, and… went… to Kokuyo Health Land, I think." He spluttered out.

Hibari loosely translated that as '_I saw her from a distance away though. She was with this unidentified Kokuyo student. They were carrying things. I went down to see_' (the other part of that sentence was decipherable enough). "What was she doing with them?"

"I dunno I dunno. But… there wath thumthing…. Really different about her."

And then he promptly fainted.

…………….

"Here, take this." M had taken the skull helmet back and draped it over her head again, before shoving something small into Kiriyuu's hands.

"What is it?"

"Teeth."

"ARGH!" Kiriyuu dropped the little duffle satchel M had just provided her with. As it dropped to the floor, the string of the bag came loose, and indeed, teeth came clattering out. "Teeth?! Why the hell is there… human teeth?!"

"It's proof." M replied, "Mukuro wants proof that we are carrying out his orders. It's somewhat… um, political in a sense."

"Political?!" What was 'political' about collecting human teeth?! Some of them still had blood dripping off!

"You know… uh, what you learn in History…politicians wanting to assassinate rivals, other leaders, or chairholders, anyone with insane amounts of power because they are hindering them in their objectives; that they contact some kind of assassin and hire them and give them insane amounts of money, wanting their rival's severed heads as evidence that the deed has been done. Only we are using teeth." M retorted, scratching at her exposed ear. "Keep it for me for the moment, will you? I'm carrying enough stuff as it is."

Kiriyuu swallowed, holding the bag by the tip of her two fingers. "So…Why are we going through this alley? What's wrong with the street?"

"Shut up and don't complain."

They were walking through the back streets of Kokuyo despite it being broad daylight outside. Kiriyuu didn't even know if Namimori had shady corners in the neighbourhood like these. It seemed to house all sorts of people – homeless people, drug addicts, murderers, rapists perhaps, oh, and geeky stamp collectors who live with their mum. Maybe it was because M had Kiriyuu's sniper rifle attached to her back, but it was wrapped in newspaper, so nobody would know –

"That's your problem. You take things far too lightly. If some maniac suddenly ran up to us and ripped off the newspaper, then our cover would be blown, and we'd be known as the girls with a gun. And a sheep's skull."

"The skull helmet isn't a big deal." Kiriyuu looked at her confusedly. "….And there are _always _maniacs in those streets and not in **here**?" She said, as she ducked under a lead pipe dripping with grimy water that had to drop onto her unsuspecting head that had to go under it at that precise moment.

M turned back to her partner, as they passed through a narrow opening between two buildings. "… Nobody can see us here, Kiriyuu. We're totally I.N.V.I.S.I.B.L.E. Like ninjas; masters of the killing art and darkness, forever lurking in their own shadows, hiding from human eyes contained within shinobi-ninjutsu ways."

"Eh?"

"Besides, Mukuro gave me permission."

"Permission for what?" Kiriyuu asked. Maybe it was better if she hadn't asked.

"To kill," M finished, and her grin broadened into an obscene sneer, "…If anyone is dumb enough to get in our way."

Kiriyuu stopped in her tracks as soon as she said that, and M was making her way back by herself, the sniper rifle bobbing up and down in its strap, layers of newspaper shifting around. The girl noticed the lack of Kiriyuu-presence, and turned back round.

"Kiriyuu, what's wrong?"

….The girl looked to the side dejectedly; she couldn't find the answer to that question. She didn't know what she was feeling. Without waiting for a response, M snorted and ignored her anyway, then continued her trek, leaving Kiriyuu to trail meekly.

But then she stopped.

"Shit, it's him." She growled under her breath.

Kiriyuu was still making her way blindly towards M. "What is it, M? Who is it?"

"Go back. Go back NOW." M commanded fluidly, without turning to her, but she ineptly pushed Kiriyuu backwards towards the way they came – and Kiriyuu rammed into a pile of 'Jenga-style' dustbin bags, and they all toppled over, bags opening and leaking out filth and grit. Chaos everywhere.

The quiet alleyway was not so quiet anymore.

……………..

Hibari stood back up – he whipped his gaze to a nearby alleyway immediately where the loud sound had resonated. The figure standing in the shadows quickly began to move away. Hibari frowned, pushed past the crowd again and stormed to the direction of the alleyway. "I saw you," He snarled, "Get back here. You can't escape."

……………..

"Whatever you do, don't look back. Keep running."

Kiriyuu flailed around helplessly, with M following back sharply. Kiriyuu was a panicking wreck, blood rushing to her head, and her heart racing to over a million beats, while M was cool and breathing evenly and not looking back. In fact, M was running faster. Kiriyuu didn't even know why they were being chased, and who they were being chased by, and she didn't dare look back either. The alleyway was dark and dank, seeing her way out was hard enough, let alone trying to avoid obstacles on the ground.

She whimpered and tried to keep up. M grabbed her arm and pulled her forward back in front of her. "Why are you so slow?! Are you like, 90 percent jelly or something?!" She screamed at her, and Kiriyuu whimpered helplessly once more. "This way."

M had bent quickly to her right, skidding to a ninety degree angle and ten picking up pace again. Kiriyuu followed suit, but she was wobbling around a lot.

"M… Wait up for me! D-Don't leave me behind…!"

………….

Hibari was close.

The figure then broke off into a manic sprint at a ridiculously fast pace, darting further into the alleyway just as Hibari threw one of his tonfas at matching breakneck speed and strength towards their direction. The tonfa missed just as the figure dodge-rolled and got back up quickly; the tonfa jammed rigidly in the wall.

He didn't know how many were there, but he could hear the girl screaming at her partner to run and she was slow and something about jelly, and then he heard a weak squeak from the partner. "You can't run from me." Hibari growled viciously in the low of his throat, ripping his tonfa out from the wall and tearing after the mysterious figure.

The figure tore down to the left; black leather boots clomping and thumping continuously against mud-filled puddles and uneven pathways - and he followed again, matching the pace equally; this person was fast – but Hibari could tell that the mysterious figure didn't know their way around here, judging by how much they seemed to be looking around frantically.

Hibari trailed the person down to the left, into those shady, smelly areas with so much junk and litter in every corner that it could practically match Namimori's Rubbish Dump; as the figure ran, the figure pulled down some binbags behind and threw some boxes full of broken window glass and other derelict pieces of furnishings; all which Hibari effortlessly swatted them away and continued his hot pursuit – he ejected out his hidden tonfa chain and it snapped around the figure's neck – the figure reeled backwards violently and crashed down to the murky grounds.

………..

Kiriyuu choked as the chain swivelled around her neck and sent her flying backwards. "M!" She rasped helplessly as her fingers latched onto the chain, trying to pry it off. "H-Help me! He's got me!"

M stopped running, and turned round; Kiriyuu was lying on the ground with a chain around her neck. She let out a frustrated roar at the trapped girl and turned back to her front. Kiriyuu gasped breathlessly and threw an outstretched arm out. M was leaving her behind?!

"M…!" She screamed helplessly, struggling violently with the chain.

"You got into this mess, you get yourself out. Don't drag me into it." M shouted at her furiously, but she could see Hibari's silhouette advancing towards them. Shit. No time. Kiriyuu would have to be sacrificed. But then she thought back to Mukuro.

No, she was the key to his plan.

M cursed furiously, then went back, unwrapping the sniper rifle from behind her back. "You." She snarled at the girl on the floor, "Are going to be the death of me, Ottuso Kiriyuu."

………..

The figure continuously tried to scramble for freedom, but a violent tug had them practically clawing frantically just to get away. Something clattered to the ground – a pile of yellowy-white teeth, fresh and drenched in blood, ranging from molars to canines - Probably belonged to another prefect from before, or even Yagami, no doubt.

"So, you were the one attacking students." He smirked, proceeded in reeling in his newly-caught prize. The figure wrenched away from him aggressively from the ground numerous times, throwing themselves back, but he was stronger. "You won't get away, no matter how much you struggle, herbivore. This will teach you to desecrate the peace in Namimori. I'm going to really enjoy biting you to death."

The figure suddenly turned round under the light; Hibari thought his face had actually drained of colour when the figure did. It was a girl. Kiriyuu? Her hair was shorter, tidier and layered, and the colour was deep black – and there was no scar. She could've cleared it by using intense make-up, however, and her hair could be dyed.

At first, no-one spoke, both sides just staring at each other.

…………..

Kiriyuu sat limply on the floor, as Hibari came forwards. What the hell…? He was the one who had been following them? But… why? What was going on? And M was -

M was in her spot, hidden behind a large dumpster, with the sniper rifle aimed towards his direction. She grinned, as she turned to Kiriyuu, put her finger over her lips. "Shh… Let him come forward slowly. I'll teach him to mess with us."

She cocked the gun.

Kiriyuu looked back at him, wide-eyed.

_No. Not Hibari._

……………

"Hibari, look out!" Someone screamed.

He turned back round immediately.

The girl took this opportunity and quickly unwrapped the last hold on her neck out of Hibari's chain -- His chain went limp. She got back up to on her feet, and Hibari watched on as she rushed out of the alleyway.

"What the hell was that all about? I almost had him!" M shrieked at her, as Kiriyuu grabbed her out of her hiding place and yanked back towards the direction of the exit. The second shortcut to Kokuyo, Kiriyuu realised, as she saw the towering, derelict building she had come out from this morning earlier. M was still lagging behind her, clutching the rifle tightly in her arms.

"Go!" Kiriyuu yelled, shoving M in front of her this time. The only thing that adhered in her mind was that she just had to get away from Hibari as far as possible – even though she was furious that he was here. She was angry that whatever revolved around her had to revolve around him somehow in one way or the other. She hated it.

She hated him. But at the same time, she -

M scowled at her and she snapped out of her thoughts; M took first place now, miles in front of Kiriyuu, who was still looking over her shoulder cautiously. M ran inside Kokuyo, through the front gate. Home base. She was safe. Now it was Kiriyuu's turn. In the alley, Hibari turned back, and then he frowned as he realised what he had just did, took off after her again –

But by that time, he had already arrived at the outskirts of Kokuyo Health Land.

His frown worsened; Kiriyuu vanished through the gates, never turning back, making a beeline to the direction of a large, towering building a distance away.

He followed her once more. Before Hibari could step forward and continue up the path, he stopped, as he sensed movement in the bushes from within the derelict Health Land. He realised there were hundreds of other Kokuyo students waiting to get a piece at him; Hibari Kyouya, Namimori High's Head Prefect. He raised his tonfas up in an offensive stance again; he knew that he could take these students on easily, but still, everything felt planned, and he wondered what was really going on.

It was simple - Kiriyuu had lured him into a trap.

**Back in Namimori...**

An hour later and a bloody Gokudera came washed up ashore of Tsuna, Yamamoto, and Reborn. He had been just attacked, by a guy in a beanie hat wielding a pair of lethal, spiky yo-yo's, no less. What's worse was that Hibari had left somewhere and still hadn't come back, Kiriyuu was still nowhere to be found, Ryohei was in the clinic with missing teeth, so was Kusakabe-san. Gokudera was in the Health room. Haru had tried to catch Tsuna with a fishing net, and Kyoko was starting to get really worried, too.

Tsuna was nervously pacing the room up and down. "Argh, what to do, what to do? Gokudera's hurt real bad…. So is Ryohei nii-sama… AAHHH! I'm an idiot!" Tsuna crouched down on the ground, clamping his hands over his head, his eyes squeezed shut firmly. He remembered back to the fight between Gokudera and the strange yo-yo guy from Kokuyo. "Why couldn't I move?! It'd been fine if I had just moved!"

Suddenly, something plopped on Tsuna's head, and he looked up. It was Reborn, attached to the ceiling by Leon – who was now in some sort of weird jelly, gelatinous-putty stage of his chameleon life (if that's what it was called…).

"What the heck is that?!" Tsuna squawked, gawping at his tutor.

"Leon's finally settled down and entered a cocoon state." Reborn replied blatantly as he swung down, landing in front of Tsuna. "I've been investigating a jailbreak incident that happened in Italy."

Tsuna blinked. "H-Huh? Jailbreak??"

Reborn nodded, "Yes…. Apparently, the mafia has been pretty reluctant and discreet in providing information, but… it was roughly estimated two to four weeks ago -- there was a jailbreak at a high security prison reserved only for the most terrible of mafia criminals who have committed the most heinous crimes. The escaped convicts killed several wardens and even other prisoners."

Tsuna's jaw dropped. "W-What??!"

"After that…."Reborn continued, "The mafia's information network tracked down the ringleaders behind the jailbreak. They were two subordinates under a young man named Rokudo Mukuro, and they were headed for Japan."

Tsuna went deadly pale and squeaked.

"Following that, three students returning from abroad transferred into Kokuyo Junior High. A gang of hooligans was formed not long after. The gang leader's name is _Rokudo Mukuro_."

"WHAT?!" Tsuna shrieked, "Could it be, this Mukuro is….?! Could it be the same person --?!"

There was a brief silence. Reborn watched Tsuna with half-lidded eyes, then sighed. "How many people do you think are called 'Rokudo Mukuro'?"

"Oh. B-But...W-Why's someone so frightening targeting Namimori High??!" Tsuna perked back up. "…. Hold on a minute… if that's the case, our opponents… are also in the _mafia_?"

"The opposite, Tsuna." Reborn began and Tsuna went pale all over again, "These people have been exiled from the mafia."

**In Kokuyo Health Land…**

Kiriyuu and M were panting breathlessly; they had reached Home Base successfully, and Kiriyuu was looking over her shoulder. "I think we lost him. He's gone."

"Damn right he is." M grumbled out, "… I hate running," She straightened herself shortly, smoothing down her hair and skirt.

"I... ran. I ran again." Kiriyuu mumbled out dolefully. "I can't stop running away from him."

M crossed her arms, frowning at her. "Whatever...Well, time to go back."

"What? B-But Hibari – "

"I have my own errands to do, remember? Don't worry, I'll go a different way." The girl replied in a flat, matter-of-fact tone, rolling her eyes again at Kiriyuu, "...By the way, what is the dough with you and this 'Hibari Kyouya?"

Kiriyuu looked at her as if she had seen a ghost. "…..We were…. (_cough_) House… err…. mates." She cringed ultimately.

M raised an eyebrow, then uncrossed her arms. "…Housemates? Riiiiight. Are you sure? He gave you a scar. I think you were more like mortal enemies at each other's necks."

Kiriyuu scratched at her scar-less cheek again, then merely nodded weakly. "Yeah, guess we are enemies." _It's kinda true…_

"Shoulda killed him when I had the chance…" M grumbled under her breath, and she brushed past Kiriyuu amongst the undergrowth they had been snooping around in, making her way back towards the entrance to Kokuyo Health Land.

Kiriyuu looked up in confusion, and a strange, uneasy feeling swept over her. "…What did you just say…?"

M turned back round. "Oh? Nothing… You better go back in already. Hurry up."

The girl nodded weakly once more, then began to linger back up the path to the back door of the building, still throwing cautious glances to M, who had now made her way to the gate, ducking low into the bushes where nobody could see. From her spot, she could see Hibari there.

He was busy fighting the horde of controlled Kokuyo students.

She smiled.

_There goes Phase 1 of Mukuro's plan… And mine._

……………

Hibari understood what Yagami by there was something 'different' about Kiriyuu.

Strange, Namimori and Kokuyo weren't rivals, but this didn't seem to be the case anymore. He dispatched them all easily while trying to get to that particular Kokuyo-Kiriyuu, and when he was done, he licked his upper lip clean of blood. She was the prize at the end; but first, he had to dispatch of more Kokuyo underlings. Kiriyuu, Kiriyuu, Kiriyuu, he thought as he beat up a random student into submission. Everything revolved around her somehow now. An axe-wielding student suddenly came swinging at him madly with hefty heaves of his bulky arms, but Hibari practically sent that guy ricocheting to the moon, seeing stars as his body flailed to the ground, having been beat up by Hibari's tonfa.

At the end of the conveyor belt of students from another school wanting to be bitten to death, Kiriyuu would probably be there.

But he was wrong.

Hibari promptly marched inside; now ready to face the 'final boss'. He kicked over a stool in his way deliberately, hearing the loud 'clang' of metal wobble all over the place, echoing deeply. He was going to get the bottom of this. He was going to find out about Kiriyuu. He was going to put an end to this to this Namimori carnage. He'd stopped - Someone was at the end of the room. Another mysterious figure.

"It took a while to find you." Hibari said, glowering silently, "are you the ringleader behind this?"

There was a slight pause.

"…._Kufufu_. Something like that," was the mysterious person's reply. "Next, we'll bring a new order to your town."

Hibari felt his last shred of patience wither away; in the darkness, he could tell this person was smirking at him. "Namimori does not require two leaders."

"Indeed. I agree whole-heartedly." The person then replied casually, "Since I'm taking over…. We don't need _**you**_."

Hibari frowned. This person was first in the death-list.

The mysterious figure continued his speech, as he put his hands together under his chin, as if he was in deep thought. "If you're wondering - Yes, that was little Kiriyuu who led and trapped you here, and made you fight all those students."

His frowned deepened thoroughly, "What did you do to her?"

"Me?" The voice teased at him mirthlessly, "I didn't do anything. Kirie-chan's quite capable of making her own decisions. You see… when someone like Kirie-chan harbours so many negative emotions, their frustration and bitterness turns into resentment… then anger… _Hatred_…until finally… all that negativity combines into something extremely beautiful and extraordinary."

Extraordinary? Like what?

"They have this wonderful, impulsive desire that needs to be fulfilled soon or else they'll never forgive themselves."

Hibari frowned inwardly once more.

"What keeps these people going… though what they believe is keeping them sane, is actually in fact, pushing them towards the edge of insanity… Because _**revenge**_…" The voice said, followed by a long pause, "… Really is the most powerful motivator in the world, after all."

Hibari waited. _Revenge?_

"… So if you're also wondering - yes, she does not want to associate herself with you anymore."

Hibari further irked.

"… I get to take your girl, _**and**_ this town."

He could tell this stranger was smirking at him. Immediately, Hibari thrust his tonfas back into his grip, holding them up at this outlandish, unseen foe.

The strange figure smiled.

"…. Right here, right now…." Hibari began, smirking back in response somehow, "_I'll bite you to death_."


	37. Plan B

In this chapter, there will be a part dedicated to **Mary-Sue bashing** if you squint. Originally, my first draft of this story only lasted up to 24 chapters. I'm kind of wondering where the 13 (and more to come) chapters came from.

Strong language in this chapter.

PS. I call Chapters 32 onwards as 'The Mukuro Saga' (hmm, though 'Kokuyo Saga' is actually more appropriate).

**Chapter 37**

_Plan B_

The door opened.

Mukuro and M came out of the room they had retreated in; and Kiriyuu looked up from her spot. M had returned not a long time ago; having finished her errands. Then Mukuro arrived; he had fresh flecks of blood over his usually clean blazer.

Kiriyuu was sure she was in trouble this time. She had almost gotten caught by Hibari, and would've ruined everything. Yet, after escaping from Hibari barely alive, leaving Kiriyuu with a red mark around her neck that she couldn't seem to breathe properly afterwards, M wasn't entirely angry with her. But she still had to report to Mukuro. Business, she called it. I have business with Mukuro. And I will explain our business to him. Don't worry, Kiriyuu. You're not in trouble. There is no such thing as punishment.

Kiriyuu also had been sorting through her belongings as soon as they arrived back at the floor of the Kokuyo Headquarters – the very building that was the landmark of Kokuyo Health Land, the building had tonnes of maze-like corridors, rooms, and the walls were all preened out. She arrived at the right floor – the very one this morning, where Mukuro's temporary 'Home base' was, it was a large, spacious lounge with a few dusty armchairs with its windows somewhat intact.

"Save me some animal crackers," M had said, just before she vanished into the room with Mukuro to discuss 'business'.

Kiriyuu was left alone with a box of animal crackers that were meant to be for M. Instead, she ate them all herself, as she sorted her junk into separate piles – the 'weapons' pile, which consisted of her sniper rifle with ammunition, and then there was the 'essentials' pile, with her cash and food. Unfortunately, she only had a few Japanese cents and dollars, the rest were euro.

They'd been gone for thirteen and a half minutes –

Mukuro looked at M and she smiled back at him aloofly, her hair a mess, her skirt needed to be smoothed back down. A few top buttons of her blazer were popping open, revealing a white vest underneath. M was still looking flustered. Mukuro was calm as usual as he made his way to his armchair near Kiriyuu's spot. He sat down, looked at Kiriyuu. She blinked. She didn't realise Mukuro and M were together. M went to the window and looked outside, completely forgetting about animal crackers. Kiriyuu realised there was something on her neck as the girl walked past without a single word to Kiriyuu. It was red, looked fresh - A hickey, no doubt. Kiriyuu looked at M's hickey mark, then at Mukuro, and then looked back down, her face flushing in embarrassment and she delved her face into her Ritz Animal Crackers box.

She didn't recall Mukuro and M being…well, _together._

_Business, my ass. All they had was a little alone time. And I was never in any trouble, either. _Kiriyuu gulped. "…Um, you - "

Before she could finish, someone strolled, no, limped in through the open door, then promptly dropped to the floor, unconscious. It was Chikusa. Mukuro and Kiriyuu looked at him; M didn't even turn around. "You found the one, hm?" Mukuro began, as Ken wandered into the doorway. Kiriyuu stopped stuffing her face with animal crackers and looked up.

"Is Chikusa back?" Ken said, and he dwaddled further into the room, plopped down beside Kiriyuu, who was now inspecting the boy on the floor. "Hyaaa – how pathetic. All covered with blood and burnt to a crisp."

"He's still alive." She muttered under her breath. She looked up at M, watching her silently; she had absolutely no idea that Mukuro, and M, were together. And M hadn't bothered to tell her, either. Maybe she should ask about them when she and M were alone again.

"Barely," M said curtly, and the sound of her voice cut Kiriyuu out of her thoughts.

Ken had grabbed Chikusa's arm and lifted it up to his watering mouth. "His blood looks tasty – "

"Don't chew on him, Ken." Mukuro called over, and Ken put down Chikusa's arm, grumbling incoherently. "He's just lost consciousness." Mukuro added, "If he met the Vongola, there's no way Chikusa could have returned empty-handed unless he's found something. Let's wait for him to wake up."

**Namimori…**

"You already know what you should do, Tsuna." Reborn said, as the poor Vongola clasped his hands on his head, mouth agape. "Don't forget what those guys have already done in order to find you. If you keep escaping from this, the victims will increase in number."

Tsuna's lip wobbled. "E-Even so… why get everyone in trouble… that Mukuro guy really pisses me off!" Then, he looked down sullenly. "Hibari-san hasn't even come back yet… and Kiriyuu is missing, too – "

"… A witness claims that Ottuso Kiriyuu is a hostage of Mukuro Rokudo."

"W-What?! W-When was this?"

"At the clinic. You were too busy with Ryohei to notice the delirious rants of the next victim and his lisp."

Suddenly, Tsuna glanced down at his sneakers, then looked back up at the infant. "Hey, Reborn… you think this has anything to do with Kiriyuu… in the future? Why would she leave just when people in Namimori are getting beat up? I know she's not part of it because she would never do something like that… well, maybe she would to Kusakabe-san because everyone knows she's jealous over him and - "

Before Tsuna could ramble on, the baby shrugged. "Perhaps. That's probably what Hibari thinks, too. There is much more to Kiriyuu than we realise. Tsuna, you didn't make much of an effort to know her better. How can you treat subordinates like that?"

Tsuna stumbled helplessly. "E-Eh…? You've really decided to – so Kiriyuu is… she's part of the Vong – "

" – Not yet. We'll just have to see."

"…What if… okay, this is a crazy idea, but – "

"No, hitmen should actively speak of their mind and collaborate their ideas with the rest of the family unless the boss disagrees."

Tsuna's jaw dropped. "No, Reborn, I didn't mean it that way - ! O-Okay, ahem, as I was saying – what if… what if Kiriyuu knows Mukuro… like… before and she's like… trying to stop him? B-But I know she's good! She's not a frightening person and she'll know this Mukuro is the bad guy!"

Reborn looked at Tsuna expectantly. "….._Before_… Hm. What's really important is that you need to take care of this Mukuro before anything else happens."

"B-But… What can I do? There's no way that I, No-Good Tsuna… can go against a guy like that… it's impossible."

"… But that's not what the others think."

"Eh?"

"Oh! There you are!" A voice trailed off from the corner, and Tsuna turned round. "Let me go with you, too!" It was Gokudera, completely free of injuries and blood. Wow, what a speedy recovery. He must've spontaneously regenerated like mad or something. "This time, I'm gonna kill that spectacles freak!"

"But what about your injuries?!" Tsuna squawked in astonishment.

"Oh, those were just little scratches." He said with a smirk. Tsuna just shook his head in disbelief.

"I'm going too, Tsuna!" Another voice sounded from behind Tsuna. Everyone turned round… to face Yamamoto. He grinned at them cheerfully. "The little guy told me all about it, with Kokuyo and all. I was worried at first – It's an interschool mafia role-play, right?"

…. No-one really knew how to reply to that. So they left Yamamoto smiling, and smiled along with him.

"Anou… You said Kiriyuu-chan was role-playing too… as a hostage, right? A damsel in distress! How come she didn't tell me anything about it? Is that why she left?" Yamamoto asked, grinning from ear to ear. "Wow! Her acting skills really impressed me back that day, when she left and stuff. I thought it was all real and I was pretty angry at her, but now I get it!" He chuckled, but then he shrugged.

…. No-one really knew how to reply to that either. So they just left Yamamoto shrugging, and shrugged along with him. But they did know this – Kiriyuu didn't leave because this was a 'mafia role-play'. Tsuna blinked at Reborn expectantly. Nothing from the infant.

"I'm going too!"

Another one? They turned round again, then – "GACK!" Gokudera immediately dropped to the floor, frothing at the mouth as Bianchi appeared from nowhere.

"I'm worried about Hayato, and Kiriyuu." She merely said, crossing her arms over her 'I Love Reborn' t-shirt. When women did that, it meant business. Well, half the time anyway, according to the brain thesis of the men around them.

"Right," Reborn then concluded, much to Tsuna's displeasure. "We'll all go now to the enemy grounds together then."

And Tsuna wished the ground would swallow him up.

**Somewhere in Kokuyo Health Land…**

Hibari remembered those words vividly.

"_Your face is saying 'How did he know about my weakness to sakura?' Well, in answer to that, I not only know about your weakness to sakura, but also your other weakness. The weakness to that girl, Ottuso Kiriyuu."_

He remembered that smirk plastered over his face. How much he wanted to wipe it off. He remained in his spot, closed off from light by this strange room where that bastard had deposited him in for the time being with seemingly no exit or an exceptional window that could be called a window except from a tiny, brick-sized opening in the wall in front of him.

"_You were a fool to have let go of her and have her come to me."_

Hibari closed his eyes, he remembered he had said: _"Don't speak like you know her."_

"_Oh? And __**you**__ think YOU do? If you think you know her so well, then you won't be remotely surprised when you really see what she is like when she has finally opened her heart and truly witnessed what this world, and what Hibari Kyouya, has to offer, compared to __**me**__."_

What the hell did all this have to do with Kiriyuu, anyway?

……………

Mukuro and M in a room again.

More 'business'.

_Business, my ass_, Kiriyuu thought sourly once again. She actually felt jealous.

She looked at the tablets in her hand. M had given them to her previously – they were painkillers – in case Kiriyuu experienced mild discomfort.

Instead, she stuffed them back into the sachet and glared at the closed door, while Chikusa was lying unconscious, half-dead and bleeding on the gurney bed. Ken had departed early to finish off his hit list. Intruding on people's privacy wasn't a subtle, nor was it a very respectable thing of Kiriyuu to do, and she couldn't seem to hear anything from inside the room anyway or see anything through the keyhole, so she leant off the door and trotted back down beside Chikusa's side, where the stool was. She looked up and around, right and left, then back to the front. The Kokuyo Health Land building felt eerily empty, with the lack of human presences.

Maybe there were ghosts.

She could hear murmuring. It could've been the wind. She could hear whispering. Again, the wind. Probably. Sounds seemed too loud nowadays anyway. From the corner of her eyes, she thought she saw a shadow, but there was nothing there. Kiriyuu felt a shiver down her spine.

The door eventually opened.

Mukuro and M emerged out once again; he was indifferent as usual, and her face was flushed, the corner of her lips looking slightly tender and swollen. She tidied her hair with her hand while the other was firmly attached to her hip, a packet of cigarettes Kiriyuu did not notice before were tucked in her breast pocket. She didn't know M smoked. M yawned, as Kiriyuu gawped at them; he smiled at her in return and excused himself, went back downstairs.

M turned to Kiriyuu, who was still staring like an electrocuted fish at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"….?"

"What? You honestly thought Mukuro liked you? In _that _way?"

Kiriyuu blinked at her, then rapidly shook her head. "No, I – "

M smiled at her, "Ohhh, Kiriyuu, that's soooo cute. You're so sweet when you're confused. In fact, I should tell you this - Mukuro is… somehow… exaggeratedly friendly in nature, so you mustn't confuse it with _affection_. I always tell him that he sends mixed signals. It's no wonder he has a fanclub."

"What? No, I didn't – "

"Shhh." She giggled as she pointed to Chikusa on the bed, and Kiriyuu frowned at her, "Not so loud. Or you'll wake up Chiku-Chiku over there. Let's talk out here." And with that, Kiriyuu was abruptly hauled out of her seat and led to the corridor where M shut the door quietly. "There, isn't that better? You can tell me ALL your secrets. Your true feelings for Mukuro are safe with me. I won't tell him. In fact, I won't tell a soul." She had put a finger to her lips, gesturing to the unconscious figure lying on the bed.

"M! You've got it all wrong! No, I don't like – "

M's sugary-sweet tone changed dramatically. "Sort yourself out, Kiriyuu. It's really starting to _PISS ME OFF_." She growled, and Kiriyuu stepped back, "You and this little delusion or obsessions that you have that everyonehas suddenly taking a distinct liking you, or HAS to like you one way or another. It's P.A.T.H.E.T.I.C."

Kiriyuu stepped back slightly, and looked down.

"If you continue to be like this, you won't survive anywhere. You can't afford to be immature like this forever. I don't care how young you are – age is just a number; you are unfortunate enough to be born into a mafia family but even though you've grown amongst a household with rules different to those of a normal family, you're like a frickin' spoilt baby-brat made out of cookie dough. You're supposed to be a soldier, goddamnit. _A killer_."

Suddenly, Kiriyuu looked back up, and swallowed. "You know what, M? I'm sick. I'm sick of all this – I made a mistake coming here. I… I'm not feeling as though I belong here at all, even though I'm sure you guys understand what I'm going through… and I-I thought… I KNOW that I didn't come here to be lectured by you, M, or be accused of liking Mukuro when I don't!"

She turned to leave, but M quickly blocked her path. "No. You're not leaving. I won't let you. Besides, that means you're just going to go back to that Hibari Kyouya, isn't it? Your little house mate. How quaint. Hell, why do you even think he wants you back? You can't go back if he doesn't want you – that's trespassing on someone's property. Yeah, breaking the effing law. Imagine that."

Kiriyuu's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Get out of my way, M." She said sternly.

M chuckled, peals of laughter echoing around the lonely corridor. "… Okay, I suppose breaking the law doesn't matter to you at all anyway, so, think about this – ahem - Out of ALL the 14 year old little girls, WHY in the GODDAMN WORLD would Hibari Kyouya want **YOU**?"

In response, Kiriyuu's shoulders slumped, and she began to snivel slightly.

"You're _NOT_ smart. You're _NOT_ beautiful. You certainly don't have a freaking Miss World Personality. You don't want world peace, you want a world war. What's so great about you, huh?" M sneered, "What do you think you have, that has Hibari Kyouya acting totally out of his character and everything else, that he's completely clouded in judgement and depleted all other common sense one normally has and thinks YOU are the one HE wants?"

Kiriyuu burned red with shame now, her eyes watering somewhat, and turned away from her, as M quickly filled in the previous spot she occupied, driving her further back into the room.

"If that was the case, then there wouldn't be things called, um… divorce, or… affairs, break-ups, or the term… 'dumped' and 'cheated', or anything else that mattered. Relationships… well, you might as well redefine that in your book as a term meaning where you see someone for the very first time in the middle of the street and suddenly you think they're your entire world and nothing seems to matter anymore except from them."

Kiriyuu blinked; she wasn't exactly sure where M was going with this rant.

"WELL, REALITY CHECK, SWEETIE. The world just doesn't work that way. There's Miura Haru. She goes to Midori High. It's a school for girls who are much smarter than you are. Then there's Sasagawa Kyoko; she's still trying to find out the best way to fully cook a chicken in less than a goddamn hour. Perfect little housewife."

"How did you – "

"Out of Kyoko, and Haru, and any other girl he could get – even I-Pin -- WHY ON EARTH WOULD HE WASTE HIS TIME WITH A SIMPLETON LIKE **YOU**?! OUT OF ALL THE GIRLS ATTENDING NAMIMORI HIGH, WHY WOULD SOMEONE LIKE HIBARI KYOUYA LIKE A COMPLETE AND UTTER USELESS MORON LIKE YOU?!" M shouted, prodding her finger at Kiriyuu's direction.

The girl rubbed at her tearing eyes, and squinted at M. "How do you know about Haru and Kyoko – "

M interrupted, "The world doesn't revolve around you, Kiriyuu. You can't have what you want. Your life isn't in your hands. Your life isn't going the way YOU want it to. YOU CAN'T GET ANY GUY YOU WANT FROM THE PALM OF YOUR HAND. IF YOU DO, HELL, YOU'RE PROBABLY SOME CLASS-A _FREAKING_ALIEN FROM THE PLANET OF BULLSHIT!!! YOU CAN'T EXPECT EVERYONE TO LIKE YOU, _SWEETHEART_!" She snarled that remark out in a sugary-sweet, mocking tone.

Kiriyuu realised that her life wasn't under her control anymore without M telling her. She also ultimately began to think of Gokudera. All she wanted was to have him accept her as a friend, that was all.

"But life goes on," M said, her voice softening, "And if you don't like that fact, or if you can't accept it, then _too bad!_" She roared again.

Kiriyuu flinched in response.

"Yet you can't pretend to ignore it. You also can't pretend that your life is normal when it isn't. You can't afford to. Have some common sense. Or you can continue being a moron who doesn't know her left or right, who yells too much, and runs around like a headless chicken and think you're going to get spoon-fed all the way. NO, Kiriyuu. It just doesn't work that way. People work. There are ups and downs, but people work hard to get what they want. You don't just magically appear and suddenly everything is all sunshine and daisies to you and those around you, you know!!"

"…M…." Kiriyuu cried harder.

"So what it is that Hibari likes about you, huh?"

Kiriyuu was sobbing loudly in response, "I…I don't….I don't know!" She snivelled hard, "I…I just know that I really like him… and… I don't know if he likes me… I never really did feel as though - "

"Exactly." M said, and she put a hand on Kiriyuu's shoulder, as the girl continued weeping quietly, "You didn't feel it. If Hibari liked you back, then you would've felt like he liked you, he needed you too. But obviously he didn't. That means you're chasing the wrong lead. You don't_**need**_ somebody like Hibari, Kiriyuu." Her voice softened ultimately, "You have to realise that. You can't depend on Hibari to be some kind of pillar of support whenever you're stuck or helpless. You have to have PLAN B. Not Hibari."

Kiriyuu blinked at her.

"Hibari isn't PLAN B, Kiriyuu. Neither is Mukuro. You have to understand that."

She looked back up, slightly confused. A while ago and M was yelling at her and calling her a moron, and now this. "I-I don't understand what you're…."

"Reverse psychology, Kiriyuu," M said, grinning widely, maliciously at her as she tapped at her temple, "I hope it worked."

It didn't feel like reverse psychology. More like screwed-up psychology. "…I feel………slightly………better…" Her lie spilled out as a series of mashed mumbles combined with hiccups. She was still snorting and sniffling uncontrollably all over her sleeve.

"Stop crying already, sheesh. I'm doing this for your own good. Because in the end, all you need is me. Not even Mukuro. Definitely not Hibari. Fuck Hibari. He could go screw himself for all we care, alright? We don't need him. YOU don't need him. You don't need him ANYMORE."

M let go of Kiriyuu, and even though she was still a little puzzled by the girl's 'reverse psychology' thing. It started to make sense, in some really weird way. _I… I don't need Hibari anymore._

"Come with me." M suddenly said.

"…Where are we going?"

"Mukuro's room. Don't ask questions until we get there."

Kiriyuu sighed inwardly; she didn't even dare to question what the girl wanted. They made their way downstairs; Mukuro had gone to the left; they nipped to the right, and further down two or more flights. They arrived back at the sleeping quarters. Kiriyuu recognised her room, with the broken wheelchair sitting outside in the corridor, and then there was M's room, directly opposite hers. They passed their own rooms, and headed further up into the corridor, and M stopped.

The door to Mukuro's room wasn't any different than the others. The only difference was that his was at the end of the corridor, linking to yet again, another corridor that probably leaked to the fire exit stairwell.

M was staring intently at his closed door, her eyes had suddenly possessed this predatory gleam, and she crossed her arms, as if deep in thought.

"…What's wrong?" Kiriyuu reluctantly asked. "Why are we here? Is this really Mukuro's room?"

"Hm? Yeah, this is his room. He's not actually in, you know." M cocked her head to the side. "….You **do** know that Mukuro is also from the Estraneo family too, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Kiriyuu blinked, "You mean, he was experimented on, too?"

"You can ask him yourself."

Kiriyuu made a face. Asking someone if they were experimented on wasn't an entirely polite thing to do.

"… What do you think will happen after Mukuro has created the new world?" M asked.

She had not much of an idea, let alone imagination. Kiriyuu thought, hard. But she was thinking about those Muller fruit yoghurt adverts. Everyone in that commercial looked so happy, eating yoghurt… in golden wheat fields… and it was so bright, there was laughter…people jumping up and down on trampolines… ice cream vans and –

"Stop those ridiculous thoughts; I can see it in your face. The new world isn't going to be a bouncy ball of glittering rays and hope - that's religious bullshit." M growled at her with half-lidded eyes. She unfurled her arms impatiently and turned to Kiriyuu.

"So what will it look like?"

"… My bet is that Mukuro is going to kick us out before the damn thing even happens."

Kiriyuu recoiled in shock. "B-But you – " M had made her statement honestly and bravely, and Kiriyuu glanced around warily, in case anyone was around. Somehow, talking to M, and hanging around with M, was beginning to feel like they were snooping around.

M sighed and turned to her. "You honestly think Mukuro has the power to bring this new world? I'll tell you something, Kiriyuu. When someone possesses insane amounts of power, they find themselves at a disadvantage - someone or something will always come and attempt to throw them off their roster and throne. It's all politics."

"But M, you're one of his – "

"So what? I can mutiny whenever I want to."

"What? Why? How come? T-Then what should we do?? Is this - "

"This is my _**PLAN B**_." M said, with a widening smirk. "….I know what Mukuro's really like. He doesn't care what will happen to you, or other people. He doesn't care about us; he is using us. Then once he is through, we are made redundant, and then he tosses us aside like trash once we're all used up. Like batteries. You dump old batteries because they're useless."

"…But what if you get a recharger?"

M sighed with irritation, and promptly glowered at her partner. "Shut _UP_, Kiriyuu."

Kiriyuu whimpered under her breath, "Okay, okay, but don't talk so loud. Someone might hear you."

"I don't care."

Kiriyuu began to notice that M was a person who had a hard time in trusting in others. Kiriyuu watched her silently, cautiously. There was a chance that M didn't trust her, either. "… But Mukuro cares about you, M." She pointed out, looking at his door.

M looked thoughtful, a hand under her chin, then shook her head despondently at the girl. "…No, not really."

_But he likes you. _

"He likes you more." M replied wryly.

"But you just said – oh, never mind…" Kiriyuu stared at her in confusion, and she slid her gaze towards M's direction, and the girl had seemingly shrunk in her eyes, shrunk in confidence and that usual demeanour M usually had, who was now rubbing the back of her elbow, smiling apathetically, at herself. Kiriyuu swallowed and glanced at her feet, a sense of discomfort swelling over her. She wasn't sure how she could cheer up M, all she knew was that she was experiencing a strange urge of sympathy towards the girl.

"Don't pity me," M snapped at her, and Kiriyuu stopped sympathising with her almost at once.

"…So… what now?"

M turned to her, "You're asking me?" She grinned at Kiriyuu then, and Kiriyuu realised the error or asking because she already knew the answer - M was up to something devious.

Kiriyuu blinked at her blankly.

She smirked back at her delightfully, "… Let's play a game… on _**Mukuro**_. Just me and you. No-one else has to know. Come on, Kiriyuu, this will be our ticket out. It'll be fun."

Kiriyuu couldn't believe her ears. She didn't want OUT, she wanted IN.

"It's just a game." M said, using a kirby pin from her pocket and tampering fiercely with the rickety lock on his door, while Kiriyuu was standing on the lookout, her knees trembling and quaking. "We're just taking something from his room and hiding it. He'll never find out."

"…But that's not really a game – "

"Stop being a pathetic, whiny bitch. You can't wimp out now. I've already unlocked his door." M pushed open the door, and turned back to her partner. "Stand guard. If Mukuro comes, distract him."

"HUH? D-Distract him? H-How??!!?" The poor girl squeaked, and before Kiriyuu could further protest, M hurried in without another word and shut the door behind her.

"How should I know? Hell, why don't you try and freaking seduce him, you little slut."

"WHAT?! NO!" Kiriyuu shrieked helplessly, "M… Open up, d-don't leave me out here, please… I-I don't want to get involved…"

"Shut up, Kiriyuu." came M's muffled reply from inside the room. "Oh, and if you tell on me -- well, you better not, _partner_."

So this was how peer pressure felt like.

Kiriyuu whimpered again and stood stiffly outside, glancing to all four corners cautiously, fumbling with the rims of her skirt endlessly; a certain bad habit of hers whenever she was nervous. She stood for a very long time that her legs ached and she began hopping from one foot to the other. M was snooping around in the room for a very long time. What the hell was that girl looking for? Just take his goddamn pillow or whatever! There was nothing wrong with that - it would work.

Her worst fears came true when she heard footsteps echoing along the corridor to her right, and she began to panic, hyperventilate, see her life flash before her eyes, the usual. "…M…. are you done yet?"

"No, I can't find it. How, is someone coming?"

"…Y-Yeah, I-I think…" It was then Kiriyuu noticed the shadow sliding on the wall towards them and she paled instantaneously. "Someone is definitely coming." How she managed to keep her tone flat and controlled at the sight of his shadow of doom amazed her to no end.

"Okay, okay, I'm almost done."

"You better be, I – "

"_Kiriyuu_."

The girl leapt out of her skin at the sound of her name being called out, by none other…. than Mukuro.

* * *

Hmm, Hibari's part was a bit random. I didn't write his fight and loss to Mukuro. It felt awful enough when I was reading the manga. I have to admit that I like writing about M. She seems to contradict herself so much that it confuses Kiriyuu and she's so different than Kiriyuu and it's cool to be writing about another OC other than Kiriyuu all the time.

Tell me what you think!


	38. Kiriyuu goes Wall E

Sorry for the repost... Sorry for the grammatical errors. It's hard to believe I managed to pass my Higher English class in school...

Btw, if you've noticed, I've changed the author's note for the first chapter.

PS. I don't own the Beach Boys, or Mickey Mouse.

**Chapter 38**

_Hole in the Heart_

_(aka Three's a Crowd)_

He had spotted her roughly a good ten feet away from where he actually stood, and Kiriyuu was at his door. Damn it. The door behind her opened to a little extent; M must be trying to get out now – and Mukuro was nearing. Without a second thought, Kiriyuu pulled on the handle behind her, and slammed the door back shut. She had to force herself to cough loudly into her other fist at the same time in an attempt to cover the sound the door made.

Mukuro was making his way up. Oh god, she thought, what perfect timing. She began to suspect that something was wrong. What if M was deliberately doing this to get Kiriyuu in trouble? No, couldn't be, why would M do that to her? She thought Mukuro had long gone somewhere, too. Well, obviously he came back from whatever he was doing. Kiriyuu's eyes darted left and right, wondering how she would get out of this. Even though M would probably get into bundles of dilemmas, Kiriyuu still felt responsible for M, and did not want any more nuisances. Besides, if she decided to let M out, and get M in trouble, the wily girl will also bend her words and get Kiriyuu in trouble, too. It was like karma. What comes around, goes around, and Kiriyuu had no way out. So all she could do now was just to try and get Mukuro to leave...

But what if he wanted to go into his room? ….Well, maybe M could try and exit from a window. But Kiriyuu still had to buy her time.

"Who were you talking to?" He asked, and she felt thoroughly interrogated.

The nervous pangs kicked in and she wiped trickling beads of sweat from her forehead. "Uh – N-No-one… I… was…Um, I was…I was, er… ah… you-you…I mean, uh…." She spluttered helplessly, as he approached her, and she resisted the urge to run off and leave M to deal with this. But she couldn't no matter what, and she let him intrude her personal space by stopping directly in front of her that their noses almost touched. Kiriyuu swallowed at their proximity and flung her gaze to the floor, squeezing her eyes shut.

She remembered what M said to her before.

_Mukuro likes you more._

Kiriyuu squinted her eyes at him. The way he was smiling at her…. it wasn't that customary forged, lethargic smile of his, this one felt… different. Yet she honestly didn't know if he always smiled like that to friends, or if this smile only appeared whenever she was there. It was making her more nervous than ever. Kiriyuu sucked in her gut. He waited for her response.

_Think! Think of something!_

"….I was…. w-waiting… for….for…you?" She eventually squeaked out.

There, she said it.

Mukuro leant off her, and turned to his door, precisely at the same time when a loud 'thump' was heard from inside. He paused. "Did you – " He had put a hand over the door handle.

"NO!" She screamed, then threw her arms out to block him – not over the door – but rather, she threw her arms out – around him, around his waist, digging her head into his side, and he abruptly let go. "I-I mean… uh, not your… um, room. Outside, like… take a… um, walk? I like walks, I really,_ really_ do. Walks are good, yeah. Walks make you… um, relaxed… and everything else…burn calories… and Kokuyo Health Land has… great places to walk around and…."

She swore he had a tiny sweatdrop, "Kiriyuu – "

"Let's just get out of here, please?" She tightened her hold on him, and whimpered, as he glanced down at her. _So embarrassing… Stupid M. She owes me big time!!_

"…. Very well." He replied. But he was giving her an odd look. Kiriyuu refused to look at him, however; she was painstakingly mortified at her own behaviour as it is, and carefully shimmied to his front, as if her strained arms around him and her little face pasted against his chest was any indicator. He was ice cold, and she could tell that Mukuro was a relatively thin person, sinewy and lean, unlike Hibari, who was like… a pillar… of…erm…. support.

_Damn it, _she thought. _I can't even describe Hibari anymore. You're an idiot, Kiriyuu, you heard M. Hibari isn't Plan B._

"You're pale." Mukuro said, and he touched her forehead. She froze slightly under his magic fingers as they weaved past to brush a few strands of her hair away from her face. She blinked at him with her big green eyes, and looked back down.

Surprisingly enough, Kiriyuu liked the way how Mukuro seemed to be concerned about her. It made her feel… special, to him. But what about M? Oh yes, M. She knew Mukuro and M were together. You know what? Screw M. Kiriyuu could be the third person in a relationship for all she cared. Mukuro was worth fighting over.

…_.WHAT? Did I just imply that - ??!_

Kiriyuu frowned at herself at her own thoughts. She couldn't believe she had just thought about that. However, thoughts about M quickly dispersed as he continued to smooth down her hair with the flat of his palm, and she kept still in his embrace, relishing the moment with a dopey smile plastered on her face while her eyes closed in bliss. Suddenly, she stopped – opened her eyes again and looked up. _D'oh, what am I doing?!_ This was no time to be struggling with emotions!! She reprimanded herself angrily. "Uh….I'm pale?" She squeaked out. "I don't feel… pale. You look pale, on the other hand. Are… you alright?"

He chuckled; and she inhaled it all in. "Kufufu, you are so cute, Kirie-chan."

Again, she froze, blinked stupidly at him. Then her face burned red and she was not so pale anymore. He chuckled again at her response, put a hand over her cheek. And then she grinned at him awkwardly.

_Mukuro likes you._

…_. He thinks you're the most adorable thing he's ever seen._

Maybe M was right.

……………..

… Where could they possibly take a walk?

Kokuyo Health Land didn't have many places that were accessible or of any particular interest. The sleeping quarters were particularly situated in the Sanatorium, a small spin-off building that conjoined to the main head quarters at the back, away from the all-seeing eyes of the public if being the utmost important icon of Kokuyo was still the concern regarding tourists anymore (which it was not). Apparently, the Sanatorium was closed during the time Kokuyo Land was open to the public; which meant the Sanatorium was at least built before Kokuyo Health Land was decided to become an entertainment resort by the council. Why it was closed down, Kiriyuu didn't know. Aside from that, the rest of the Kokuyo were hidden, submerged in ten feet of shrubs and undergrowth due to the years of neglect.

Mukuro said he wanted to show Kiriyuu something. They were already there, too. Kiriyuu blinked blankly at him and turned to where he was facing – the window – and stared. They stood side by side watching outside.

"What do you see?" He asked.

She hesitated briefly, as her eyes scanned the rest of the Kokuyo population down below. A trick question, she thought. Mukuro obviously wanted a smart answer. "Ignorance." She then replied curtly, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "I see a lot of ignorant people living their lives with no clue as to what is really happening, and going on, in this world."

He looked mildly surprised at her response, but said nothing.

She faced him. Now was a good time for a completely random conversation. "…So what's your favourite colour?"

Mukuro turned to her, and then, he let out a roar of laughter. This would be first time she had seen Mukuro laugh like that. It wasn't the usual bemused chuckle and a finger under the chin, it was…. perfect. She knew it was a random question, and it really did emerge from nowhere, but she was curious at the same time. He looked down at himself, then – "Green."

She pursed her lips. _Hmm, he just said that because he knows I asked him a dumb question._

"Yours?"

Kiriyuu blinked at him. She actually paused to respond; she hadn't expected this at all, as stupid as it sounded. That was because no-one else had ever asked her what her favourite colour was. "… Purple... the light kind, like lilac. Or blue. baby blue, or seafoam." She uttered out. "What's your favourite food? I'm guessing… _pineapple_." She tittered at her own joke.

"Hm…." He smirked smugly at her all of a sudden, scrutinising her from head to toe, "I'm sure you would like even more adorable with shorter hair…"

"What? No way." She said, without thinking. She stopped_. Oops, I must've hurt his feelings._ She turned to him. He was still looking at her head, possibly imagining a pineapple bob like his. She quickly spoke again, "I like pineapples, but I like long hair more because I was born with it." _Actually, everyone is born bald, but who cares?_

He chuckled at her again and stepped over, now intent on fiddling with a few strands of her hair.

She was secretly pleased with this conversation. She had never had a proper conversation with Hibari, as in, sit-down-and-have-a-coffee kind of conversation, and this 'conversation' with Mukuro would have to do for the moment. It would have to substitute for now. It would have to fill this gap Kiriyuu had. Some kind of black hole. A void.

"We should go back." He suddenly said, stepping backwards and turning back to the window.

Suddenly, a rush of thoughts began to flourish through her mind. What _will _happen once the new order comes? Who will be the governor? Mukuro? Then…Will there be some form of democracy? How is he going to do it? Who will make up all the rules? Who will he have to step over to get it?

She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt a small squeeze on her hand and she looked at their interlinked fingers; surprisingly enough, it didn't feel intimate or anything – more like those times identical to when someone is holding someone's hand as guidance. Like a parent helping a child cross the road, and she was considerably shorter than him in height. Kiriyuu bit her lip; she wasn't quite sure where she was getting at with this, but she dropped her tense shoulders and whimpered slightly. Mukuro's hands weren't as cold as she thought they've would have been. She didn't understand; what did Mukuro like about her? Kiriyuu really was useless. She felt useless to him. Maybe M was right about that, too. And suddenly, Kiriyuu felt alone.

She clung onto his hand tighter.

……………….

Forty gruelling minutes later, and Kiriyuu was tired, exhausted, worn out like old tyres. Hanging around with M was a seriously tiring thing, too, physically and mentally. On the other hand, M herself had endless ounces of energy to burn. Maybe that was why the girl was stick-thin, with a gap between her thighs too. Kiriyuu wished she had a dynamic body like that; M wasn't fat or thin, nor too tall or too short. She was just perfect – well, in Kiriyuu's eyes, she was.

She dismissed M's little game of Hide and Seek, and held onto her own beliefs. Her own beliefs concerning Mukuro. If M wanted to mutiny and revolt against him, then that would be no business of Kiriyuu's. M could rebel against Mukuro alone for all Kiriyuu cared.

_Mukuro would bring the new order. He would bring the new world. And I'll be part of it._

She thought back; the walk didn't last very long – Mukuro had to leave early for 'business' - and Kiriyuu returned by her lonesome back to the corridor, snooping around in hopes that Ken or Chikusa (if he had woken up) wouldn't notice her, and arrived back where Mukuro's room was. She hoped M was there, or somewhere near, and she hoped that M had found whatever she wanted to take from Mukuro.

She wasn't there.

Stunned slightly, yet knowing that hanging around the scene of 'crime' would be awfully unwise, Kiriyuu opted with making her way back to the lounge on the sixth floor, all the way, passing the corridor which held her room, and M's room. She stood outside M's door, as if waiting for something. M wouldn't be inside anyway, she knew, but staring at a door for more than five minutes was something Kiriyuu wanted to do at least one time in her life without being reprimanded by anyone for wasting time.

There was a note on M's door.

**Go to the Fifth floor. **

**I'll meet you at the Waiting Hall.**

Stunned slightly, Kiriyuu gawped at the sticky note. That's M's handwriting? Suddenly, she could hear a strange scratching noise coming from inside.

"M? Is that you?"

No response, but the odd scratching noises grew louder.

Kiriyuu moved near the door and hovered her ear about an inch away, careful not to get the fungus and grime on the door into her ear canal. She tried to listen; the scratching stopped, replaced by ethereal whispering and odd muttering, then dull yet strong, guttural wailing sounds. It was like… like…

…_Crying._

_Somebody's crying._

_A…baby?_

It grew louder. And louder. And louder. Louder. _Louder_. She stepped back, and she clutched at her head, her fingers scraping through her hair as her eyes squeezed shut tightly.

_Argh. What the hell?!_

When she opened her eyes again, the noises had stopped altogether and she was swaying in the middle of the spot with her hands on her head, her eyes wide and shaking. She laughed suddenly; yes, this was like that time, when she was back at the house and she thought she heard something too – Kiriyuu moved away from M's door immediately and decided to make her way to the fifth floor, and then she stopped in the middle of the corridor. She rubbed her eyes; it was Bird's bird. The little yellow blobby thing; must've separated from its owner. It was flying around in a circle, before zooming to its left. Curious, Kiriyuu walked up slowly, and watched the bird disappear down a dark staircase. Kiriyuu stared downwards, and tilted her head to the side.

And now she could hear…. _Music_. A song.

It sounded like Namimori's school anthem. That stupid, ridiculous song Hibari tried to teach her to sing. Of course, she always ran away from music lessons. This really was just like back in the house. She thought she heard someone upstairs but there really wasn't anything or anyone upstairs. It was her nerves, they were picking on her. Her anxiety, her stress. It made her shaky and tense.

_I'm getting paranoid. This is a spooky place. These are exactly the type of buildings used to film scenes of Japanese horror movies, probably. It's okay, Kiriyuu. Just think about a song that makes you happy, like… 'Wouldn't it be Nice' by the Beach Boys? Or… ah, say….The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse March. M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E - You know what? Never mind._

Kiriyuu shook her head vigorously to clear her thoughts. Then looked back up and listened intently. Nothing, and a lonely howl whipped around her – it was just the wind outside. Kiriyuu averted her gaze from the staircase and continued trekking down the corridor.

"Kiriyuu."

Eh? She turned back round; it was M – strange, Kiriyuu didn't see anyone behind her – and she looked up and around, realising that M had probably come from that dark stairwell she didn't have the guts to walk through. "What's wrong with you?" Then, M grinned. "Thinking back to your little rendezvous with Mukuro, eh?"

She blushed furiously. "N-NO!!!"

"Oh come on, I saw the way you practically melted in his arms. It's okay, you know, if you want to have a one-sided love affair with him, go ahead. Just make sure that you're not hurting Hibari's feelings at the same time."

Kiriyuu sweatdropped, and glanced to the side. "E-Eh….? I-I didn't - "

"Urgh. Stop making up excuses. I saw you two through the keyhole, alright? Sheesh, you're like, so totally in love with him that you're all googly-eyed." M made funny gestures with her hands.

"I AM NOT!" Kiriyuu barked ferociously.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I know you're in denial, you bee-yotch. Anyway, did you see my note?" M said, hiding a grin with the help of her hand.

"Yeah, I saw it…"

"Okay, cool. Let's go to the fifth floor then. I need to talk to you in private."

Kiriyuu watched M march towards the stairs, ready to go to the fifth floor. "U-Um….M?" Kiriyuu began wobbly, as the girl turned round and shot her a calculating look, "… D-Do you share a room with someone by the way?"

"Do I share a room? No, of course not. I like my privacy. Why do you ask?"

Kiriyuu was too afraid to press on. _I'd go: 'M, I heard funny noises in your room, like some kind of crying… a horrible, wailing noise… ' and then M will say 'You're crazy, Kiriyuu' and go tell Mukuro. _Instead, she said: "Did you find it?" Kiriyuu was panting slightly; going up derelict stairs and then having to climb up halfway through was exhausting.

M shook her head, frowning fiercely. "Mukuro must have it with him."

"What are you looking for anyway?" Kiriyuu asked; she wondered if M trusted her enough to tell her. For all M could know, Kiriyuu could report what M was doing to Mukuro if she wanted. But no, she didn't want to.

She wanted to know what M wanted first.

There was slight hesitation from M, and she crossed her arms, "…Remember how I told you that Mukuro was from the Estraneo famiglia?"

Kiriyuu narrowed her eyes. _I don't trust M about this at all. However…Looks like M trusts me so far._ "Yeah, I remember, what about the Estraneo?"

"Well, Kiriyuu… what was their most notorious invention? It was all over the mafia news at some point, maybe eight or nine years ago…" M replied, and she tapped at her temple with her index, "Think fast."

Kiriyuu pondered, then shook her head. "I don't really know."

"Oh, come on, you MUST know."

"Just tell me."

"Nah, that would ruin the fun. Come on, hurry up while we're still young."

The fifth floor had rarely been explored, Kiriyuu realised, as they entered the floor. It was darker than the other floors; maybe because the windows were boarded up, or slashed with black paint. She swallowed, following M further down the corridor. M opened a random door to the right, Kiriyuu gawked, as she ushered her quickly into the room, leaving the door open.

M promptly sat her in one of the dusty chairs in the room with loose hinges and Kiriyuu watched her sit in the chair opposite, and whip out a small notepad and pen. Then she protruded out a pair of glasses from her breast pocket of her blazer, and put them on. She crossed her legs and faced Kiriyuu directly. "Tell me your aspirations. Your dreams." Her soft voice echoed around the empty room.

"Urm. Why am I doing this?"

"Because. Your behaviour is starting to worry me."

Kiriyuu fumbled for a moment, then, with her hands gripping the rickety bubblegum-stuck-under brass handles, she bit her lip and quivered slightly. "I...I don't have many aspirations, but... I dream of a lot of things."

"Tell me what you dream of when you sleep then." M said, tapping at her notepad vigorously.

She wondered if she should actually tell M what had been happening – like the incident with the diary, and M's room. "I don't know when I dream," She mumbled back, slumping backwards in her chair, blinking sluggishly. "But... I've been hearing a lot of voices. They're always whispering and murmuring...and I hear sounds. I don't know what they are."

There was a slight hesitation from M as she stopped scribbling in her pad, glanced at Kiriyuu, and sighed gently, "Kokuyo heath Land is full of ghosts; ghosts of the past."

"...Ghosts," Kiriyuu murmured under her breath, and she inspected her bleak, dilapidated surroundings. A shell of its former stature and glory, she believed. Kokuyo health land had once been an extravagant entertainment zone and was now reduced to nothing better than a slum. As she continued scanning the landscape scenery of Kokuyo, she spotted Ken; he was standing in the corridor, just a few feet from the room M and Kiriyuu were in. No-one said a word to each other –Ken blinked dumbly at her for a few seconds. Kiriyuu blinked at him from her chair, now matching his bewildered stares with her own.

"....What are you doing?"

"What are _**you**_ doing here?" Kiriyuu returned the question.

"I saw the note, pyon. 'Come to the fifth floor'." He waggled the flimsy sticky note in his hand.

She cringed, and M laughed. "…It wasn't for you, Ken, it was for me…"

"You? Why?"

"This is… uh, M's therapy session." She shamefully blurted out. "She's, uh…" Kiriyuu glanced to M - who mouthed 'helping you', nodding along the way. "She's, uh…helping… me." Kiriyuu looked away from M, back to Ken.

"Eh - ?" Ken scratched his head. Another brief silence wafted through the uneasy tension between them; he promptly marched forward into the 'therapy' room. He stopped inside the room, at the doorway, and stared.

Kiriyuu turned to M. "This is what happens when you don't label things properly."

M, sitting opposite Kiriyuu in the chair, shrugged helplessly and turned to Ken. "Is there a problem? Or do you have any personal problems you would like to disclose to me?"

Ken was still staring – then he turned back to Kiriyuu with a raised eyebrow, then grunted in response, and waved her off. He shot her another dirty look, and scampered out of the room back towards the landing, muttering under his breath about 'a baseball nut is waiting for me outside' and 'better warm up'.

Kiriyuu watched Ken retreat back down the stairs, and turned back to M. "What was that all about?"

"I'll schedule him in later. Apparently, he still suffers from nightmares about his childhood." M said, coughing into her fist, and Kiriyuu cringed inwardly. Then M glanced back at her notepad. "Okay, so these... voices you hear. What do they say to you?"

She shrugged slowly.

M cocked her head. "You don't know? What about the sounds; where did you hear it?" She then asked. Kiriyuu had looked back up. M didn't like the way she looked at her; with those empty, soulless green eyes and her head hanging down low.

"Your room."

M blinked, put the pen to her lips, "...My room? And what was the kind of sound you heard coming from my room?" This was getting interesting.

_Crying_, Kiriyuu wanted to say, _I hear someone crying inside your room._

"Well?" M said, still waiting for her response.

Kiriyuu hesitated again, then – "Nothing."

"...Nothing? What do you mean by 'nothing'?"

"I... don't know."

M sighed again. "Kiriyuu, I won't allow you to lie to me - if you don't open up to me, how will this therapy session end in success? How do you want me to help you if you won't tell me anything?"

_I don't want you to help me_, Kiriyuu thought. _If I tell you I hear freaky sounds, you'll tell Mukuro. He'll think I'm a freak. _She took a deep breath. "There's nothing wrong with me, M." Kiriyuu then got up from her chair and departed from her spot.

Suddenly, she could hear M's voice, and her lips smirking into a tight knot. "Or is there, hmm?"

………..

Therapy was over. Even though Kiriyuu left first. M said she was late in meeting Mukuro, and rushed up the stairwell outside the fifth floor, taking two steps at a time, before Kiriyuu could even set foot on the first step. But then M stopped, and craned her head back round to a puffing Kiriyuu trying to tackle the never-ending stairs. "Hey… you took a walk with Mukuro, right? Did you kiss him by the way?" She grinned.

"NO." Kiriyuu growled out.

"Really?"

"YES, REALLY." Kiriyuu retorted as M began to pick up her pace up the stairs once more.

"I thought you would've. I know you how much you _like_ him."

"For the last time, NO. Wait up, M…" Kiriyuu squeaked out, "Wait for… me… M!"

"Hurry up, slow coach." M called over, with a light giggle, her voice echoing all around the landings, and then she was simply…. Gone.

Stupid M, Kiriyuu thought bitterly to herself. If M was going to be sneaky in her motives, then Kiriyuu would be, too. She didn't want anyone ruining Mukuro's plans for the new world. If M was going to put a stop to it or whatever her intention was, then Kiriyuu would redeem M as an enemy. The girl was also too playful for her own freaking good. What kind of twisted 'hide and seek' game did she want to play with Mukuro anyway? Did he even realise that she wanted to steal from his room at some point? How could he even have an associate like this? Maybe Mukuro and M weren't even on good terms at all as Kiriyuu thought.

As soon as she arrived at the lounge, M was nowhere in sight - it had already been five minutes or more, and she was a sweating wreck. Her face was red and puffy, and Kiriyuu did believe she had too much to eat when she was with Hibari. She was like jelly and cookie dough. She had put on a few pounds, and even her stomach seemed to be spilling over her waistband. It didn't used to. I used to be skinny, she thought, and she whimpered again.

She looked around the lounge and realised it was stark empty even though she was sure she saw M come this way, and she sat down on the dusty couch to wait for someone or something to arrive. She looked up and around, twiddled her thumbs, yawned and picked at her nails. There was no TV, she observed, and wondered how these people passed time at night. Obviously it was probably substituted with the working bowling alley downstairs.

On the wall, she hadn't noticed newspaper clippings attached to the rear wall with blobs of chewed bubblegum. She got up from her seat and inspected them closely.

_They're all from mafia newspapers. Here's one from the Giglio Nero…. There's even one about the Vongola… _

She heard a noise and quickly returned to her seat. She looked over – no-one was there.

She was reluctant to go back to the newspaper-clipped wall, and merely waited in her seat. A few moments later, and Kiriyuu's eyelids began to droop. She felt tired all of a sudden…. Very…very… Sleepy ….. She closed her eyes, threatened with the idea of falling off the couch and landing on the cold, dirty floor as she swayed while sitting rigidly upright in her seat. She didn't want to lie down completely; the couch was too dirty and she hated filthiness.

A 'click' sounded off to her right, and Kiriyuu instantly jerked upright. The door opened, and Mukuro and M emerged out from the room; M smiled at Kiriyuu again. Kiriyuu merely stared onwards, numb, as if thunder had just struck her. M winked at her; Mukuro went back downstairs without even looking at Kiriyuu.

_Mukuro and M in a room._

_Why am I not surprised?_

Kiriyuu actually felt a pang of disappointment in her gut, and her shoulders slumped. In fact, no words could describe this feeling precisely. She knew she felt hurt all of a sudden. Maybe she was jealous of M. But at some point, she actually thought _**M**_ was jealous of her. Maybe that theory was wrong. She could understand when M said that Mukuro gave out wrong messages, that he was exaggeratedly friendly and that it shouldn't be confused with affection. She looked down at her feet, sighing helplessly. The void in her chest stirred again. The strange empty feeling. She wasn't hungry, just... unfulfilled. Unsatisfied.

Like... something was missing from her life.

_Why am I… feeling like this? _

_I don't really like Mukuro…_

… _Do I?_

_What about M?_

_I don't care what she says, I know she likes Mukuro. _

_And what about Hibari?_

_No, Hibari doesn't like me._

It was some sort of vicious cycle, she realised. She wasn't an attention-seeker, yet she honestly thought that Mukuro liked her in some way, like back at the corridor, outside his room and – Kiriyuu stopped, laughed at herself. Of course, she thought. Don't be stupid. He smiled a lot to cover up his true nature. The smile was fake. It was a part of his uniform. Like everyone else in Kokuyo High School wearing those goddamn green combo skirt or slacks and blazer. It was standardisation; everyone gets the same treatment and nothing more or less. Therefore Mukuro could be a player; he could womanise all he wanted. With his charm, intellect and good looks, he could have anyone or anything he wanted. Her laughter died weakly with the wind. And she dropped her smile.

She sniffled.

The black hole came again. But then she attempted to smile once more.

She would try to smile from now on. She would try and be like Mukuro. He smiled regardless whatever he was feeling. And it worked. It fooled everyone. Maybe he even fooled himself. She knew about his childhood now. It was nothing worth to smile about. But he was. So she should be the same. She lifted up a piece of cracked mirror from the mirror on the wall that had dropped to the floor, and tried to make out her thin, wiry reflection.

It was hard, but she could make out the distinct outline of her lips. Smile. She was smiling. Even though inside, it felt bleak, and she knew the real truth herself. She shouldn't be feeling like this. But she couldn't help it. Kiriyuu felt alone all over again. Chikusa has Ken, M has Mukuro. Who did she have? Nobody, that was what. Everything would always be in pairs. No space for another.

Three's a crowd, after all.

_First, Hibari, now Mukuro. _

... Didn't she deserve to have anyone in her life?

* * *

**PLEASE READ:**

Sorry to post this chapter up again - I don't think I have time to update anytime soon, and before I go on, I've been meaning to ask...

**Does anyone want Kiriyuu to still end up with Hibari?** Or Mukuro? Spanner??? For some reason, I am starting to think otherwise.

What do you guys think?


	39. M for Metamorphosis

I'm sorry Kiriyuu went all Wall.E in the previous chapter. I can just imagine her watching some kind of old classic movie like 'Gone with the Wind' and then clasping her hands together and sighing. I've even affectionately renamed that chapter's title! I realise this story has become tediously dull for some time. So I hope this chapter will provide some clarity to what's happening; I've had to merge some chapters together because I want this story to end at Chapter 50!!

PS. I'm actually glad everyone voted for Hibari x Kiriyuu. I was starting to lose faith D:

This is a sufficently long chapter, but you should read this thoroughly, too.

**Chapter 39**

_M for Metamorphosis_

M remembered what Mukuro said. There's something wrong with Kiriyuu. Oh well, not her problem. Kiriyuu's deteriorating mental health would be Mukuro's burden. "Mukuro has orders for you." M told her, "He wants you to go back to your room. Stay there until you're needed. I'll come for you, I promise."

_Of course_, Kiriyuu thought to herself as she got up, and was walked back to her room in Kokuyo Sanatorium with M at her heels. _Then you can go and continue with your 'business', or shall I say, __**your**__ 'love affair' with Mukuro. Yeah, I know, you two are together – no matter what you say. And he gave you that mark on your neck and your swollen lips. _"D-Did you find what you wanted?" Kiriyuu then asked.

"Find what?"

"What you were looking for. You know, the-the hide and seek thing...?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kiriyuu did a double-take. They went back downstairs. M refused to speak about 'Hide and Seek'. In fact, she was no longer grinning, and her usual, jovial demeanour had completely vanished, replaced with a solemn look on her face. "What now?" Kiriyuu eventually squeaked out.

"… Mukuro's orders, of course." M merely replied, with a wave of her hand as she dumped Kiriyuu into her room and shut the door behind her and Kiriyuu peeped out from the barred window of the iron door, fists clenching around the tiny, rotting bars. "I have tonnes of things to do."

Kiriyuu comprehended the fact that this M before her had completely changed compared to the previous M once more. It was back to hard-core Mukuro's New-world order-carrying-out thing. And somehow, Hide and Seek didn't exist anymore either. "I'm not allowed to do _anything_but to stay in my room?" Kiriyuu squawked in disbelief and she rattled the doorknob fiercely but M wasn't letting her out, holding onto the knob from outside, effectively trapping Kiriyuu in like a rat. "I know I've just come and you think I'm new at this, but I don't want to be useless. Just let me do something. Mukuro wants me to prove myself to him, right? I can do it! I want to do something for the new world!"

"Shut up. You nearly cost us our necks with that little stunt you pulled back in the alleyway. You may not be in trouble by Mukuro, but I keep a grudge, Kiriyuu."

"…. I didn't mean to get caught…I'm really not allowed to do anything? And Mukuro doesn't believe in me anymore -- Just because I messed up…??"

M sighed. "It's not about that anymore, Kiriyuu. Oh, Mukuro believes in you alright, and you're lucky, you know. You don't have to work. Look at poor Chikusa – he got hurt – you saw it. You were there. You were meant to end up like him, too, at some point. Ken will get hurt too. I know. And I don't want you getting hurt. So I do it all for you."

"Huh?" Kiriyuu suddenly shot her a look as M took out a cigarette from the box and rummaged for a lighter; underage smoker, just like Gokudera. "You mean _you've _been carrying out the orders that **I **was supposed to do for Mukuro, and told me to do something else?"

"Bingo." M said, as she watched Kiriyuu from outside the room, in the corridor, in freedom, while Kiriyuu was still enclosed in the room. "I'm his most trusted associate. You can perhaps call me… second in command."

"… And… Mukuro's not… angry at you?"

"No, why would he be?"

"….. Of course he isn't. You two are together." She mumbled. For some reason, Kiriyuu really did feel…. Jealous. She was jealous of Mukuro and M, and whatever relationship they had. They could be intimate whenever they wanted, they talked to each other as much as they wanted, they… could do everything. But not Kiriyuu. Not Kiriyuu and Hibari. There'd always be something stopping them, an invisible barrier. It wasn't physical, visible, but she knew it was there. _There's no such thing as Kiriyuu and Hibari anymore._ "M… But you said Mukuro – "

"What? _Mukuro likes you more._ Yeah, like, whatever. I don't care. We're his followers, got it?" M snarled back at her. "If Mukuro likes either one of us, even Ken, or Chikusa - it doesn't matter."

At that point, Kiriyuu frowned. "Is that what you think of your 'relationship' with him?" She really began to lose the feeling that her relationship with Hibari was worse than M and Mukuro. No, her relationship with Hibari was better than that.

"…We don't have a relationship." She said, and Kiriyuu blinked in confusion, "I'm doing you a favour, Kiriyuu. You don't want to do what Mukuro has been telling you to do anyway."

"And why's that?! Why can't I take part?"

"You see, there's the other problem you seem to have." M replied, leaning forwards slightly, "You're always thinking about the 'new world, new world' – we went over this before - do you even have the slightest idea what's going to be in the new world?"

"I don't care about that. I just want IT. And Mukuro can do that."

"…. That's what he wants you to think." M said, crossing her arms over her chest. Kiriyuu was drawing a blank, and she rolled her eyes at her, "Mukuro's been targeting all your friends – the Vongola. And Hibari Kyouya." She didn't even wait for Kiriyuu's response, "You probably won't care why he is, but I know you don't want to go through all that. So I'll do it for you. Trust me."

"Trust you?" Kiriyuu mumbled out. She'd began to realise that M seemed to contradict things she said a lot, "How'd you know my friends are the – "

"Just trust me, Kiriyuu. **I'm the one who's **_**really**_** helping you**, **not Mukuro**. Tell me, Kiriyuu, what do YOU think Mukuro is like?"

"E-Eh? Um..." She stammered, and M rolled her eyes once more, "Well, he is nice and – "

"Okay, just stop. You make me sick. I'll tell you what Mukuro is REALLY like: aside from his nature and his tendency to use people - Mukuro is a cold, calculating, scheming bastard." M spat out, and Kiriyuu flinched slightly, "He has all these plans up his sleeves, believe me. And all those plans, revolve around YOU. Do you know why?"

_I don't get her_, she thought. _M seems to change natures just as much as Mukuro does, only she doesn't hide it with a smile. She's full on aggressive and assertive._ Kiriyuu shook her head. No, why?

"Because you're still a 'registered' member of the mafia. You're still in their world. He isn't. Chikusa and Ken aren't either. Don't you get it?" She said; at that point, Kiriyuu shook her head once more. M winced. "Man, you're so dumb." Pause, "Look here, Mukuro wants to eradicate the mafia. It's not as easy as snapping your fingers and that's it done, no, you need to be careful, you need plans and lots of power, but that not's all. He wants to do it the hard way because he knows that'll be the way to devastate them; he wants to hit them hard without even knowing. Like dropping a bomb. Unpredictable, overwhelming, _**powerful**_. He's already done it once to one family – his own, actually and the one after it - but it's not enough. That's only Step 0.5. He needs a stronger family to drop the bomb. He needs one with a lot of history, one with many allies and enemies or whatever. He needs YOU."

"…Why me?"

"You're part of the GIGLIO NERO. And they are one of the most ancient famiglias or something like that. Everyone knows your name, everyone knows who you are. Hell, maybe the mafia started with you guys." Kiriyuu cocked her head in response, and M sighed in frustration. "Goddamnit, don't you get it?!"

She shook her head – again.

"HE'S GOING TO TAKE _CONTROL_ OF YOU." M emphasised loudly, "Mukuro is going to gain complete control of you, and use you to infiltrate the Giglio Nero famiglia from inside under your identity. You're his key to his plan. You're_** everything **_to him!!!"

For a moment, she intook the mere sight of M's flushed face and suddenly, Kiriyuu didn't like the way M was looking at her. M was… angry. Kiriyuu's mouth merely opened and closed, opened and closed, then - "…I-I am…?"

M growled again. "You are seriously dumb. I don't care if you trust us or not, or if you know the fact that Mukuro and his friends are all a bunch of ex-mafia criminals. Well, that won't really matter to you anymore, right, since you don't care about who we are."

"….What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, didn't I tell you that before? The people you are currently hanging around with are all criminals who have killed people and done all sorts of other terrible deeds. They've been in jail. They did their time. They broke out of jail and ended up here. What they want – it's just the same as 'world domination'. And you're helping them – or you _will_ end up helping them, willingly or not." M said in a mocking, sarcastic tone, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you – I didn't want to hurt your _feelings_." A smirk graced her features.

_Criminals??_ Kiriyuu paled somewhat. _That meant M is a criminal, too_. "What the - ?!" She began to jerk at the door violently, suddenly wanting to get out, but M held on the handle on the other side. "Let me out, M!"

"It's too late now." M began, suddenly glaring at Kiriyuu through the barred window, " – So don't do that, or I'll hurt you. I don't want to, but if you're not obedient, I'll be forced to hurt you. I'll hurt you really bad and you don't want that."

Kiriyuu suddenly stepped back, she would try and never let anyone intimidate her, or scare her, but... something about M…. was really starting to scare her (not like M didn't usually scare her, but not to this extent). M didn't look scary; no, she had no scars or fierce tattoos, she wasn't tall or lanky, she wasn't big built or hefty or anything. Just regular, normal. Maybe that was what scared Kiriyuu so much. M was normal. She wasn't eerily quiet or obnoxious, she was simply ordinary. But M was also smart. She was cunning. She was manipulative. She had a way with words; she was a word twister.

"Listen, you ungrateful piece of _scum_," M continued with a snarl, "Mukuro has done something for you, so the least you can do is uphold your end of the bargain. Remember that favour he asked, right at the start, right when I met you?"

Kiriyuu froze momentarily.

"Yeah, that's what I thought; you said _you'd do anything for him_. That's what we said we'd do, too. Ken, Chikusa, me. We do everything for Mukuro. We don't question his motives, we don't disobey him, so you should do the same, and hopefully, you won't get hurt. I hope you remember it well," M then said, tearing her sharp eyes away from Kiriyuu.

Kiriyuu was thoroughly confused. "….. You – "

"You're a hostage, got that?" M ignored Kiriyuu's widened expression. "That's what we are calling you from now on. You are not 'one of us' anymore, you are an outsider, you are our 'hostage'. Your little friends will see you as a hostage. And a hostage you'll be, and nothing more, or less. It's all part of the plan."

Kiriyuu's eyes widened. _…Hostage…?_ She understood it now. They WERE using her. They were planning on using her right from the start. M was right. "W-What are you going to do to me?" She stuttered out.

"Me? What? You actually think that now that I know that you are everything to Mukuro, and I'm not; you actually think that I'm going to hurt you or something?"

Kiriyuu remained on the edge. _She threatened to hurt me before…_

"No, don't be silly. He can use you for all he cares. But not me. You should be more concerned about yourself from now on; I know everything about you, Ottuso Kiriyuu. Everybody does. You're 14 years old; your relatives are just your mother, godfather and that ignorant, little adopted brat named Elia who will turn thirteen years old in a matter of months."

"The list… It had details about me – Mukuro had it back at the theatre – "

"No, not the list." M said, "You're also the subject of an experiment, too, and apparently, you die in ten years time – "

"You looked in my diary, didn't you?!"

"Diaries," M began, "are the most pathetic things I've ever seen. However, I'm pretty glad you don't start your entries with '_Dear Diary'_. Thinking that the diary is an actual 'person'… is really pathetic."

Kiriyuu stared, gobsmacked. Then M left, without another word. And Kiriyuu was still standing silently on her spot, seething with rage. But when she heard M's boots echo off the flagstone floor, she ran back to the door and grabbed the doorknob. It rattled fiercely under her grip, taking up a few precious seconds to actually open. She yanked it open and stood at the corridor, in the middle, glaring at M.

"What the hell is your problem?! Y-You rebel against Mukuro at one point and then you're suddenly his loyal follower and then you're suddenly on my side and then you're back to being his lackey… you're… You're unpredictable and it scares me! Who the hell do you think you are?!" Kiriyuu yelled at her; her eyes quickly swerved to a half-broken wheelchair lying on its side near her, and she picked it up, then threw it against the wall in a rage, blind fury. Her strength seemed to have doubled because of that. The wheelchair smashed and crumpled back down, a wheel spinning uncontrollably. The sound was ethereal. It was loud, chilling to the core.

M didn't even wince at the sound. But she sighed.

Kiriyuu had enough that she wanted to throw things around and yell and scream and not give a damn. She clenched her fists, her face reddening with fury, "_Who the hell do you think you are_?!" She belted at her again, and suddenly, she remembered back to the day she met Mukuro. _Everything is UPSIDE __**down**__. What is __good__ is in fact __**EVIL**__._ No, it couldn't be, she thought. Why has everything turned upside down on her AGAIN?! She thought she was finally at some place with people who understood her, but now it just came back and bit her in the ass. _It wasn't fair!!! _Kiriyuu crashed against the wall, digging her fingers into her scalp. Her head hurt all of a sudden. _WHAT'S GOING ON?! Why is this happening to me? _

_**Why am I…. being betrayed and used all over again…??**_

_All over again._

_All over._

_Again._

"Who the hell am I, you ask…?" M's voice floated back into the uneasy atmosphere as she turned back round instantly. Kiriyuu instantly realised her mistake, as M began to advance forward, scowling. Her face was dark, deep and foreboding. "I am… _Perfect_." M said, with her voice low and cavernous, as she stepped forward Kiriyuu, "… I am much more perfect than you. I am everything you want to be. I am everything everyone wants me to be. I am what Mukuro wants me to be. I am… everything. _**I **__am the new world_."

Kiriyuu watched her – in horror - "…I get it now… You're…You're _crazy_."

"You really think?" M frowned, as she gave Kiriyuu a calculating look, "Well, if I'm crazy, so are the rest of us then. Mukuro… Chikusa…Ken. And you're slap-bang in the middle. So you can become crazy like the rest of us in this mental asylum and listen to Mukuro, or get the hell out of here."

_She is crazy_, Kiriyuu thought, over and over again. _She's insane. She's crazy, crazy, crazy_. _Goddamn crazy_. "You're… absolutely crazy. You-You…." Then Kiriyuu finally realised.

There was a problem with this girl, this… M.

Kiriyuu slowly put two and two things together. She couldn't pinpoint what the problem was, but the evidence was building up - She wanted to 'play' hide and seek with Mukuro. She wanted to rebel against him. Then she told Kiriyuu that she was part of Mukuro's plan all along… She said Kiriyuu was 'everything' to him when she was not…That wasn't just it - the way how M spoke like Mukuro sometimes, the words she spoke about Mukuro; Perfect. Ideal. Equal. Flawless. And that sparkle in her eyes whenever she mentioned him, the smile that always crept over her face whenever she talked about him. There was more. Kiriyuu tried to piece things together, and she looked up at M in horror.

"You're… _You're obsessed with Mukuro_."

There was a brief hesitation from M, then – "You have GOT to be kidding me." She snorted at the girl as she crossed her arms. "That's the best you can come up with? Please, Kiriyuu, oh please, don't make me laugh."

"No, it makes sense. You call yourself by 'M' – Your name probably doesn't even start with 'M'. What is your real name?"

M frowned fiercely, crossing her arms tightly. "I told you, it's M."

"No, it's not. YOUR NAME ISN'T 'M'."

M fumbled slightly. Then she glared, turned away promptly. "This is a stupid conversation."

_Aha! She faltered there! I'm right!_ Kiriyuu knew she had her cornered now. "You don't know your real name, do you? In fact, you can't remember it at all. You can't remember anything else about you, don't you? The life you have right now is just a shadow of Mukuro's life!"

"S-Shut up! I'm not living as anyone's shadow!"

"Then where did you come from?" Kiriyuu demanded, firmly. "Where did you come from, M? How old are you? Where are your relatives? Who are your parents?"

M stumbled with her words. "I - I come from the -- I was - " Then she stopped, and turned to Kiriyuu. She frowned. She didn't come up with any answer, but Kiriyuu knew what was going on. M didn't know. Though, Kiriyuu expected her to come up with Mukuro's details as an answer. She didn't. Maybe it was because just like Kiriyuu, she had met Mukuro randomly, and didn't know anything about Mukuro's relatives or parents...

She watched M glower venomously at her, but she continued firing out words regardless. "You're obsessed with Mukuro. He talks about the new world, so you want the new world. You said before you met Mukuro, you were Nobody. And then he came, and you were Somebody all over again. You think you're his new world. You _want _to be his world. You're_ with _Mukuro, but-but… that's not enough. You're obsessed with him that you probably even think you're Mukuro. You're obsessed with him so much you want to be just like him. And now that you know he's going to use me and think he's going to get rid of you, you–you…. you'll do anything to prevent – "

M's expression toned down, souring into another frown. "…This is a waste of my time. Believe whatever you want, Kiriyuu. I don't care." Then she promptly put on her ibex skull over her face.

Kiriyuu's breath lodged in her throat, seeing the empty sockets stare back at her. _She's… fine. Nothing's happening. _She re-thought again; what was she expecting from M? A mental breakdown? Probably. She wanted to see M wither away to the floor with her hands over her ears, sobbing and weeping now that Kiriyuu knew her deepest, darkest secret, but now –

"But just to let you know, I already told you - " M began as she pulled out something long and thin from her back encased in a black cover – some sort of weapon anyway, and Kiriyuu felt a sudden rush of fear through her; M hadn't done any of the sort. She hadn't broken down, she hadn't started crying, she hadn't reacted the way Kiriyuu predicted, and now, she tried to run – but her legs wouldn't move. Rivulets of sweat continued to run down her temples, her knees shaking, heart pumping against her ribcage, as if it was straining to jump out at any moment.

_M-Maybe there isn't anything wrong with M after all…_

Suddenly, Kiriyuu felt like she no longer knew who this girl before was. She knew she didn't know her for long, but this was absurd. M had turned into a completely different character. M was becoming verbally abusive. M was becoming terrifying. M was becoming angry. Kiriyuu swallowed, standing solidly like a helpless deer caught in headlights. _Goddamnit, move!!! Move, move! She's going to kill you!!_

"You screw with me, Kiriyuu, I'll get you back."

_MOVE!_

Kiriyuu spun on her heel – a complete one hundred and eighty degree twist of her body – but to her horror, M was standing there, behind her. "H-How did you - ?!" Kiriyuu stepped back in shock. "But you were just standing just - " Kiriyuu began to turn the other way back around where M had been standing previously– to her surprise – M had suddenly appeared back there, too. "What?!"

"You can't escape me, Kiriyuu." She said, "No matter where you go."

"W-Who are you?" _More like, WHAT are you?_

At that point, M grinned wolfishly, her features distorting malevolently as her lips pulled tautly back in opposite directions. "…Wouldn't you like to know… _Kiriyuu?_"

Kiriyuu stared in shocked silence, tried to run again – but it was too late. The thing in M's hand – lifted up, and she brought a crushing blow on Kiriyuu's head even though she shielded herself with her arms.

It didn't work.

**Meanwhile…**

"I think we're lost."

Tsuna, Reborn, Gokudera, Yamamoto and Bianchi finally arrived Kokuyo Health Land, and were now surrounded by unfamiliar shrubs and undergrowth unattended by human care for years. Birds with weird birdcalls hooted from branches, and strange buildings towered above treetops, looking ominous and menacing. Tsuna shivered.

"I think we're lost."

"Yes, Tsuna, you've said that six times by now." Reborn replied brusquely with a sigh, as he looked around cautiously, while Gokudera and Bianchi were trying to find a path leading out of this dense forest.

"Hey everyone, let's not forget the buddy system now so nobody gets lost or left behind, eh?" Yamamoto said with a cheerful grin, while Gokudera rolled his eyes.

"This isn't a scouting trip, you baseball nut." He grunted out.

"But it's still got the mood." Yamamoto replied, still grinning.

Suddenly, Bianchi and Reborn paused. She turned to Reborn expectantly, "I think I heard something."

"Me too."

"What?" Tsuna asked, turning round, then – _FWOOSH_ – and Tsuna's ear was suddenly brimming like hot lead and he was swamped with pain. "Ow, ow, ow!!" He chanted in agony, rubbing at his ear…. which was smoking. "What was that?!"

Gokudera pulled out a few bombs, while Yamamoto and Bianchi scoured the area rigorously.

"Ouch!" Yamamoto suddenly winced, his arm received the blow and he looked down. A thin stream of blood was pouring down (at least it was his left hand), and Reborn quickly inspected it.

"Don't worry. It's not lethal enough to kill us, but it's just as I thought." Reborn said as pried out a small bullet lodged in Yamamoto's arm, and everyone went 'oooh' as they examined the tiny shell. "We are being targeted, and since we're in a small clearing, we're easy to pick off. Let's move!"

Almost immediately after he said that, a shower of bullets rained down, and Tsuna screamed bloody murder as he stood limply at the line of bullets making tiny explosions in the ground at the impact. Gokudera had to pick him up just before the bullets hit him entirely, while Yamamoto grabbed his legs, and everyone picked up pace, running through the forest to get cover.

…………….

She looked up from the crosshairs of Kiriyuu's rifle, and made herself more comfortable on the tree branch, aiming the gun down at them. They were like swarming ants.

Ken was sitting on the branch beside her. "Is it my turn to go yet?"

She was still peering through the looking glass, and eventually snapped her head back up. "Yeah, they're going the right way now. Hurry up, or you'll miss them."

"Oh, yeh?" He hopped off the tree branch and began to swing downwards in his Kong-channel state.

The tree rattled and M had to hold on or she would've fallen off. She called after him lazily, "I'll watch you fight and come to collect your dead body once they're through with you."

"Ha!" He exclaimed, as he looked back up at her from the ground; she was a tiny dot in her hiding area in that tree. "I'll make mincemeat out of them! You just watch me!"

**A few moments later…**

M waited for about fifteen to twenty minutes before making her way to the garden zoo where Ken should've fought Yamamoto Takeshi. She didn't know how Ken had fared off. Sawada Tsuna, Reborn and Gokudera Hayato had come, as expected, she thought. The woman named Bianchi was here, too. Where was Hibari Kyouya? He had gone missing since he fought Mukuro.

She collected Kiriyuu's rifle and made her way to the zoo; then immediately ducked back under the bushes about twenty feet away when she realised the group were still huddled around the area. Except there was no Ken. Suddenly, Yamamoto emerged out of the hole in the ground, with Tsuna strapped over his shoulder like a potato sack. She watched him grin, though his baseball-dominant arm was throbbing with red rivulets of fresh blood. But he just kept grinning, and put Tsuna down. Then she turned to the sniper rifle beside her and picked it up. She peered through the crosshairs, aiming it directly towards their direction. But then she stopped, and let go of the sniper.

M sat back, waited for them to walk away. She held her breath, and when they were finally gone, she emerged out from her spot and quickly rushed to the garden zoo hole and peered down. There was Ken, tied to one of the cage bars of the zoo. He was drifting in and out of conscious, as Bianchi had dropped a rock on his head a few moments earlier. She put her hands to her hips and shook her head at him as he looked up at her with squinted eyes. "…. Don't you look well?"

"Shut up and untie me, pyon."

**Later…**

When Kiriyuu woke back up, she wasn't at the sleeping quarters. She wasn't slumped over the wall like a ragdoll with a bleeding head judging by the impact M had inflicted on her. In fact, she wasn't even bleeding. She didn't have a bruise, either. Her vision clarified and she looked around her surroundings, she realised she was now stationed at the foot of the stairs, that led directly up to the Lounge. Confused, she shakily lifted herself back up and stood, wobbling somewhat. _What's…What's going on? I was meant to be back in the corridor… I… I really sleepwalk??!_

"M?" She yelled out loud. "M? Where are you??" Damn it, she thought. M may be a psychopath but she seemed to know what was happening to Kiriyuu. She looked at her hands. They were rather itchy and raw.

Downstairs, she arrived outside M's room. She knocked on the door – to her amazement – The door opened, swinging on its rusty hinges with a metallic, grinding 'creak' and Kiriyuu winced, as she stepped in, a gale of musty, gut-wrenching air overwhelmed her nose at the same time and she was induced in a coughing fit, her lungs throttled with rancid air. There were only shelves in this room filled with outdated supplies of food. There was no bed or desk, unlike Kiriyuu's room. Not even a window. Rusting pipes hung at the top of her room, connecting to outside, or the internal plumbing and ventilation system. Puffs of smoke were emitting from the loose hinges every five seconds or so. Hypnotising, Kiriyuu thought.

Kiriyuu revelled in her surroundings in confusion. **This wasn't M's room at all**.

_This is a __storeroom._

Disturbed, she shakily stepped out and ran back up. She saw Ken, just at the fire exit door, towards the lower level bathrooms, and she rushed over the banister of the broken stairs and breathed a sigh of relief. "Ken!"

He was actually bleeding, his face somewhat bruised and his eye swelling to a size of grapefruit. "Hey… you got an icepack, pyon?" He asked, waving up at her. His wrists were red with rope burns.

"What happened to you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Whaddya think?"

Kiriyuu's hands clenched. "… Have…Have you seen M?"

"M?" Ken raised an eyebrow, "You mean M.M, pyon."

"…No, just M. Who's M.M?"

Ken blinked, then frowned, and shook his head. "Just get me an' icepack."

Kiriyuu noticed the clueless expression on his face and realised that he wouldn't have much of an idea where M was. "Never mind, I'm going to go look for M myself."

…………

Chikusa was still in the lounge when he woke up; Mukuro was sitting directly beside him. "Oh?" His voice entered the distil atmosphere, and Chikusa accepted his glasses from Mukuro's hand, "You've awakened? The third-ranked prey proved to be quite troublesome, hm, Chikusa?"

"… I met the Vongola boss." The boy replied, as he sat up in the bed, supporting himself by the back of his elbows.

There was a slight pause from Mukuro. "So it seems. He's come with his friends." Another pause, then - "Ken has been captured."

"What about the girl who went with him?"

"Kirie-chan?" There was a light chuckle. "She should be fine."

Chikusa actually hesitated to say this, "…There's something wrong with that girl you recruited, Mukuro-sama."

"Oh? Like what, Chikusa?"

He blinked; obviously Mukuro had no idea what was going on. It was only Ken, and himself so far. Again, Chikusa hesitated, "…. She talks to someone. I heard her talking to that person again; she thought I was sleeping. I'm sure I heard two voices when I was resting. Ken has heard her talk to someone, too." He added, "I don't know who it is. Ken doesn't know either."

Mukuro's eyebrows furrowed again. "….You're saying we have a spy amongst us?"

"We have never seen this person she talks to. Only her voice is audible."

"I see… And has this unidentifiable female got a name?"

"The girl addresses her as 'M'."

Mukuro smiled back, and Chikusa realised the futility of his statement, "Come now, Chikusa. You know what condition Kirie-chan was in when she arrived here; she is still unwell and needs proper care. It is the side-effect that is affecting her, that is all."

"….Hai, Mukuro-sama." Chikusa merely replied, but he was still unsure about the entire ideal.

Mukuro looked up at the doorway, "Ah, there you are, Kirie-chan. That took you quite some time." He said with a smile once the girl they had been talking about appeared in the doorway from out of nowhere.

She stared back at them, with her arms at her side and her face dipped down low but her eyes searching them upwards. Chikusa eyed her warily back from his resting bed. Her response was a little odd compared to other times. The girl was much quieter, and her reaction was slower; she merely blinked at him, then nodded. A slow, lazy nod of acknowledgement.

"I'll let you meet the rest of my acquaintances." Mukuro said, noting the girl's twitchy, jerk-like movements. Something was wrong. She was rubbing her head; and the colour had drained from her entire face. She looked strained, dishevelled. Sick.

Mukuro gave Kiriyuu a long, hard stare. _There was something wrong with her._ He couldn't pinpoint it, but compared to when he first met her back at the theatre, and the way she was now, Kiriyuu was definitely… different. He put his hand over her forehead; she looked up, blinking at him blankly. "I-I'm fine, Mukuro." She stuttered out, and he pulled his hand back.

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing.

Kiriyuu swallowed. "I-I can't find M. I can't find her anywhere. She's not in her room, she's not at the fifth floor, or the Bowling alley, or in your room, or Chikusa's room or Ken's room. I've been looking for an hour; I've been to most of the buildings and it's not like her to suddenly disappear. It's like she's playing hide and seek again, but with me and I don't like it – "

Suddenly, she stopped. _… Why should I worry about M? Especially after what she did to me…_

She rubbed her aching head again, as she turned away from him to stare back at the new group of people in the room she had never seen before. Her head still throbbed like mad, thanks to M. Crazy M with her crazy Death and Mukuro-obsession. Crazy-ass M with her one-letter name, and the crazy, weird stick-like weapon that swung and hurt like hell. Crazy M with her Ibex skull and those lethal injections. Crazy M and her stupid hide and seek games/mind-torture/REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY and other strange abilities. She wondered what would happen if she told on her. And then what? Kiriyuu had no sense of authority in here, practically. Was it worth it for the new world now, if she had to put up with M, let alone these new people -- The new people in the room were also considerably strange on a whole astronomical level; a guy called Birds who got nosebleeds from seeing people's fear etched on their faces, and a tall, quiet guy with scars (like hers, only she had one) holding a cannonball attached to a chain, and -

"Hmm," The girl with short, chestnut-carroty brown hair and a clarinet resting on her shoulder said, hopping off the arm of a dusty couch and inspecting Kiriyuu properly. "Have you committed any crimes?"

Kiriyuu paused, "… N-No."

Mukuro and the girl both blinked at her. "You're lying." The girl stepped back all of a sudden, "…Ne, Mukuro-chan, she's not your _girlfriend_, is she?" That was said in a very, very dangerous, low tone, as the girl's stare focused on Kiriyuu converted to a glare.

Mukuro just patted Kiriyuu's shoulder warmly. " -- And this is M.M, Kirie-chan." He said instead, as Kiriyuu and M.M just stared at each other.

…_.M.M?? _Kiriyuu thought. _M…M…. and M…. M.M…. M…?_

"She doesn't look too happy. Mukuro-chan" M.M said, prodding at Kiriyuu's head with her index finger. Kiriyuu made no attempt to flick her finger away. She wasn't even listening to what was going on.

"Hrm?" Mukuro turned to her. "Kirie-chan?"

"….I'm fine." Kiriyuu grumbled incoherently again, and M.M inspected her closely once again, beginning to point out that her hair was a mess and needed more conditioner and all this other crap.

Mukuro let out an amused chuckle at their interaction, and ruffled Kiriyuu's hair, making the top of her head look like a pineapple (like his, actually), unfortunately, it flopped back to its usual style in a matter of seconds once he let go. "Well, M.M-chan – stop fussing over poor Kirie-chan, we can trust her – and it's your turn to go now. Say goodbye to Kirie for now. You two can talk more later; Birds, you too." His hand was wrapped securely at her waist –she felt uncomfortable all of a sudden and bit her lip.

"Hai, Mukuro-sama." The two lackeys replied in unison; although M.M shot Birds a rather dirty look and promptly marched away from him quite some distance, out of the room.

Kiriyuu watched, then rolled her eyes at M.M; she thoroughly reminded her of M, and began to wonder if they were somehow related. She glanced at Birds, noticing the little tennisball-of-a bird perched on his blobby, bunched-up little shoulders. It was the same bird she saw back at the corridor. Hibari liked birds – Kiriyuu shook her head – ever since she arrived here, all she could really think about was Hibari and the Vongola. The cannonball-guy, roughly about six foot tall or more, wandered out of the room even though he hadn't been commanded to. Kiriyuu watched them again. There was a tight squeeze on her shoulder, and she looked back up at Mukuro. He smiled apathetically at her and put his hand over her head, ruffling her hair again.

"What are you thinking of, hm?"

She jerked slightly. "…Who were those people? I hope you don't mind me saying this, but they're a little… creepy. Especially those thin, creepy twins and that short, stubby guy with the pug face."

"Oh, Birds… and…" Mukuro looked up thoughtfully, then back down. He took his hand out of her hair, cradling his forehead gently with his hand. "………"

"You've forgotten their names." She replied for him. In response, he gave a lean, smooth shrug of his wide shoulders. _He doesn't care. He doesn't care about them._ M's words swam through her mind. Kiriyuu then blinked at him curiously, but decided to drop the matter. She suddenly wanted to ask about M, yes, learning more about M seemed important than anything else. _Mukuro, where the hell did you meet her? How did you meet her? She's completely insane. What's her background? How old is she really? 14, or 15???!?_

Kiriyuu then wondered why she had suddenly taken an interest in finding about M's background history. She really didn't want anything to do with the girl, honest. And then she remembered what M had told her before: Don't talk about M to other people, or people to other people. So that meant Kiriyuu couldn't ask about Ken or Chikusa either. Like, how did they meet Mukuro, too. She didn't even know yet. All she had been engrossed with was the new world. _I really don't know anything about them at all. What if M was right? Maybe they really are using me. But how can I just trust M like that? I… I don't even know if I can trust Mukuro anymore either._

_Who can I trust??_

"Um… Mukuro…. I have another question…" Kiriyuu stammered, and he turned towards her. His attention was completely hers. She swallowed, hard. "U-Uh… about M…she, uh… you know what? N-Never mind."

"No, no, I want to know." He persuaded her with a smile, and Kiriyuu bit her lip uncomfortably. "Your behaviour has been concerning."

"…How did you heal my shoulder? And my face? Is it magic?"

He blinked; hadn't accounted her to ask him that. Then he chuckled. "It's not magic."

"Then what is it? Why can't I feel anything? Why am I not bleeding?"

Mukuro tilted his head to the side slightly, but then he smiled, and he chuckled again, put his hand under his chin. "… Well…." He began, and she looked up at him eagerly. "Fine, you got me, I'll tell you." Kiriyuu waited. He really hadn't planned on telling her? "… I used an **illusion**."

_Illusion_. _That makes sense_. Kiriyuu blinked dumbly at him then. "You use illusions." She uttered out croakily on the spot, "… My scar is gone. And my arm's not sore. That's you doing that?"

He shrugged at her again, another taunting grin spreading over his chiselled features. "If you say so." He turned back to the open door. "Kiriyuu. It's time for you to - "

She wasn't listening to what he was saying. Instead, she deadpanned, stuck in her own thoughts. _Mukuro can do anything. M probably is obsessed with Mukuro, but she doesn't seem to realise or know why. _Kiriyuu suddenly pulled down a part of her blazer, at her shoulder. She couldn't see the wound at all, as if it was invisible. It was covered by an illusion. No, that IS the illusion. _What about M?_ Kiriyuu tried to piece more things together. M doesn't know where she came from, she seemingly doesn't even know how old she is, she doesn't know who her family and relatives are, either. She just had some sort of loyalty to Mukuro. Who, or **_what_**,was M?

Wait. That's it.

…_What if…_

_What if she is an illusion Mukuro made too?_

* * *

Sorry for the lack of Hibari. He'll pop up again soon! Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them :D


	40. Six Sigma

**Chapter 40**

_Six Sigma_

Kiriyuu felt sleepy again. She had been stuck in her thoughts since she left the floor, before deciding to go back to her room. She told Mukuro that she wasn't feeling well and so, he said she could retire to her room early. Haunting thoughts shrouded her mind as she made her way up. _An illusion…_

_What if M really is an illusion Mukuro created?_

As in…. M… isn't _REAL _real. Like human real, but a **manifestation**. Of Mukuro. He made her. He is controlling her. He makes her say what she says, and what she does. That's why M's obsession with him could be that she is just a creation of Mukuro, and Creations will always bear similarities to its Maker, right? If he could somehow magically make her scar vanish, and his powers were that great that he practically erased her wound on her shoulder, and the pain itself, and everything else, then making an illusion of a person wouldn't be so hard. But why would Mukuro do such a thing?

_Why would he create M in the first place? What does he want to achieve, by creating M?_

Argh…. Kiriyuu held her head. Now that she thought about it, she really should've guessed that there was some kind of conspiracy going around here, too. She stopped outside her room, staring at M's closed door. She frowned at it, and entered her own room, plopped herself down in her bed.

_But how can M be an illusion of Mukuro? She blurted out to me that Mukuro is going to use me for his own selfish motives. He wants to start a mafia war. He is going to use me to meet that objective._

_How can M defy her Creator?_

Kiriyuu's eyelids dropped.

… _And where is M right now?_

She fell asleep.

**Back outside…**

After defeating the full-on assault from more crazy allies of Rokudo Mukuro's, including a girl with a clarinet wielding microwave properties named M.M, and a creepy little man who got nosebleeds from seeing people in terror with subordinates consisting of puppet-like, double-jointed twins, Tsuna was beginning to wonder how many people they would have to go against just to get to Rokudo Mukuro. It wasn't just that, but there was no apparent sign or even a slight mention of the word '_hostage_' so far.

"Fuuta!" Tsuna yelled, as he rushed through the thick forest, trying to locate the runaway little boy who was supposedly 'following' Rokudo Mukuro now. Suddenly, Tsuna stopped. And stared. In the clearing, he had stumbled upon, a boy was there, and….

Kiriyuu.

At first, no-one said anything, but then – "Tsuna!!" She cried out, after a split moment of hesitation, and then she lashed out at him and hugged him, exalted by his sudden appearance as the boy beside her just stayed quiet while eyeing Tsuna up and down from the sidelines, "I'm so glad you're here! Does that mean Yama-san and Goku-san are here too?"

Tsuna gawped at her as she let go of him; her hair was black and the scar was beginning to clear up, now a messy indent sprawled on her cheek like a smooth, bumpy hill over her skin – nevertheless, she still looked pretty (well, compared to herself 4 years ago, courtesy of that photograph provided from Longchamp), like before, despite the new feature to her face. She was also dressed in a trademark Kokuyo uniform, the female's uniform equivalent of the boy beside her. She wasn't as tall as him even though she was wearing black boots, and there seemed to be a huge contrast between their complexions in general…. Tsuna couldn't explain how and what distinguished them from each other really was, but…. He shoved those thoughts to the side for the moment.

"Kiriyuu, what are you doing here?" He babbled, eyeing her up and down.

She said, "I'm a hostage."

"W-Wha? O-Oh yeah, I forgot… h-how come you're in a Kokuyo uniform…?"

"Oh, this? Well, Mukuro has forced everyone here to wear a uniform from the Kokuyo high school…." She mumbled out disdainfully, "I prefer the Namimori one, to be honest."

"...And this is…?" Tsuna had gestured to the boy who had been standing mutely between them.

"Oh?" The strange boy began as Kiriyuu just grinned, and as Tsuna stared widely in response, he smiled, "You're here to help us, aren't you?"

Tsuna blinked. "Eh…"

"Oh, wow, we're saved." He turned to Kiriyuu and smiled at her, she returned the smile; Tsuna realised something awfully bizarre about this guy- those eyes - his eyes held a discreet warmth and fondness in them…. And the way he was looking at her… Perhaps almost like the way Tsuna looked at Kyoko half the time (but not that bad). "I honestly thought we'd never make it out alive." He added.

Tsuna blinked incredulously. _I wonder if Kiriyuu's moved on from Hibari, and… onto…. This guy….? Nah, couldn't be. Kiriyuu's crazy about Hibari._

The girl just guffawed bashfully at him. "W-Well, I could've… n-never mind, as long as Tsuna-chan's here, we're safe!"

Tsuna just continued gawping uncouthly. _Eh? Could it be? This person is also a hostage of Kokuyo high….? Ah, yes, Mukuro must've obtained uniforms from Kokuyo High… _He finally let out a reassuring, yet awkward grin. "Uh…. sorry to have kept you waiting. We're still… in the middle of the rescue though…"

"I'm really grateful that you've come to rescue us." The boy began once more, "Thank you."

In response, Tsuna just smiled gawkily while scratching at the back of his neck and began blubbering words all at once_. I just realised he's the first honest person we've met since we came here… and Kiriyuu's here too, safe and sound. I feel relieved._

The girl looked up. "Oh, that's right." She suddenly said, and the two boys glanced at her. "Tsuna, I…. I have to tell you something. The way I left Namimori, so suddenly like that, and acted so cold… I'm sorry. My younger cousin was held hostage by Mukuro, and I had to go save her… and then I ended up being captured, too. Anyway, I'm really sorry for leaving so abruptly. I had to."

"I-It's okay, Kiriyuu-chan. We understand." He said, still smiling aloofly at her to convince her that everything between them was still okay.

Kiriyuu flicked a dark gaze at Tsuna, and her eyes narrowed immediately. "No, _you don't_."

"E-Eh…?" The brown-haired boy blurted out clumsily at the change of Kiriyuu's attitude, as all of a sudden, the calm atmosphere that clustered amongst the trio turned into a thick, uneasy miasma, full of tension and… it felt threatening, that Tsuna's knees began to quake against each other slightly.

She suddenly looked away from the two of them. "I… I should go back now. Hibari's still confined in the building somewhere." She averted her attention back to the boy beside her. "You should be safe here now."

He gripped her hand that was hanging limply by her side, squeezing it tightly. "What? You're really going back, Kirie-chan?"

She nodded, and he let go of her slowly. She looked at Tsuna again, and began to saunter back towards the direction of the building they apparently came out from. Tsuna and the boy watched her silently, and then turned back to one another. Tsuna began to feel uneasy all over again, and it was even worse now that Kiriyuu had actually gone.

"Anou, you and Kiriyuu-chan…" He began uncomfortably.

This strange boy's eyes softened at him. "…._What about me and Kirie-chan?_"

The dangerous aura he suddenly felt before swarmed into the atmosphere again and Tsuna began sweating. "U-Uh, n-never mind…."

However, something seemed…. Out of place. Everything.

Even… _Kiriyuu_.

………..

Tsuna was still lost even though he was sure he had went back from the way he had returned to; what was worse was that after Kiriyuu left, the guy she was supposedly helping out – Tsuna unfortunately ditched him when he realised that he had strayed too far by accident. Well, if the guy was a Kokuyo inhabitant, he'd probably know his way back, right?? Ah, too late to start regretting now. Tsuna pushed through some low shrubs and downy undergrowth, and looked around; he really had no idea where he was going. He continued forward, and then –

"ARGH!"

He almost received a fatal case of cardiac arrest when he saw the figure leapt out from the bushes just a few feet in front of him. It was a girl – just a girl, also in a Kokuyo uniform. Nothing out of the ordinary there. She looked glum; her face pale and rigid, sad and forlorn. She was small, perhaps younger than him some years and her hair was medium-length and black, cropped at the top in a pineapple fashion… hmm… a bit like the guy Kiriyuu was with earlier on…. Tsuna thought he was starting to make some kind of pattern here. She blinked at him anyway, then looked at her feet, scuffled at her shoes. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you."

"U-Uh, I'm okay." Tsuna babbled, as he maintained his regular breathing levels. "Y-You're a hostage?"

She shook her head, watching him strangely. "No, I'm looking for someone. You're not a Kokuyo student, right?" As soon as Tsuna then shook his head in response, she grunted, "Well, you might as well be some help to me. Have you seen a girl? Her name's Kiriyuu; she's got an injured shoulder and – "

Tsuna suddenly did a double-take. "….Kiriyuu??? You mean Ottuso Kiriyuu??"

"You know her?" The girl's gloomy face began to light up. "Have you seen her?!! I'm Elia. I'm her cousin. I've…I've been looking for her, but – "

"….Oh, right, but… " For some reason, Tsuna didn't believe her.

"You want proof, right? Here, I got a photo." Elia protruded out a glossy print; and handed it to Tsuna. It was indeed, a photograph, of her, and Kiriyuu. They were in some kind of theme-park, standing beside a huge yellow cat thing. It wasn't very recent, but Kiriyuu hadn't changed much. "I don't know where she went…"

"You should really get out here, it's dangerous." Tsuna shrieked, waving his arms around; he really wanted to get Fuuta out of here, too. In fact, he wanted everyone out of this mad asylum.

"WHAT?! NO!" She suddenly yelled, and Tsuna leapt in fright. "I have to save her!!!" And then, tears began to leak out from the girl's eyes. "E-Especially because of what I… I did… to her."

There was a slight, discomforting silence, and Tsuna stepped forward slowly. "… What… What did you… do to her?"

The girl clamped her hands over her head and began to sway on her spot; Tsuna stumbled back a few steps; she was total wack, or high on bong perhaps. "I'm… I didn't mean to… but I didn't know what I was doing too… I felt… like I wasn't there, y'know, like someone was controlling me, but… I was kinda… awake and I knew what I was doing… but… I think I shot her in the shoulder… and I can't remember why or… why I would do such a thing."

Tsuna just stared. _Back away slowly… this girl is a nutjob… a completely insane, mad, psychotic, lunatic. Back slowly Tsuna… and maybe she won't notice…_

Elia noticed anyway, and her expression darkened thoroughly, making Tsuna step back away from her even more. "… You think I'm crazy, don't you?!" She shrieked at him. "Well that's what Mukuro does to you! He turns you insane! _**He breaks you!**_ I'm lucky enough to have gotten away from his influence, but… Kiriyuu…."

" - I-I'm sorry, I have to go back now – bye!"

She frowned deeply at him, and Tsuna went 'waugh!', then immediately turned back and began running back out in a frantic sprint, with Elia following him closely. "Get back here!" She was yelling furiously at him, and Tsuna screamed, closed his eyes and just ran in any direction, flailing with his arms in the air, and then –

He emerged back outside – and saw 'Rokudo Mukuro'. "Eeep!" He shrieked, and began to back away, but then he turned back round –

"GET BACK HERE!"

"HIEEEE!" Tsuna shrieked again, "I'm trapped!!!" But he turned back to his front. He saw Gokudera and Yamamoto, and Bianchi. Yamamoto fought bravely against that animal boy back in the zoo… and Gokudera protected Tsuna from that glasses guy, too. And Bianchi fought the girl with the clarinet… and she was now protecting Yamamoto.

_I can't. I can't just turn back and run away… even if it IS Rokudo Mukuro. _Tsuna bit his lip, closed his eyes, and then opened them again. "Hey, you!!" He yelled out, though his voice quibbled somewhat, "What do you think you're doing?!"

And when 'Rokudo Mukuro' turned to him, Tsuna was suddenly frozen all over with fear, and perhaps even, regret. Now would be a good time to be hit with the Dying Will bullet. He would regret that he had never run away at this precise moment. So then he would run away from this situation as if he was to die.

_Is it… Is it too late to turn back now??_

………..

Kiriyuu woke up at Home Base, on the couch, exhausted again. She had a few leaves in hair, and her clothes and boots seemed covered in more much and grit than usual.

She had been outside.

There was something on her leg. She shifted slightly, then peeled back a small section of her skirt. A black leather holster was around her thigh, concealed cleverly under her skirt. She took out the contraption that came with it.

_**A foldable trident.**_

With a sigh, she replaced it back and tried to remember the last thing she did. She was supposed to be in her room. She was tired of this; she had probably sleepwalked all the way from her room all the way up and probably took a detour outside Kokuyo Health Land. Waking up in random places wasn't surprising to her anymore. She looked up, adjusting her eyes to bright sunlight pouring into the dank depths of the Kokuyo building from the window. Her thoughts landed back to M. _She's really an illusion….? _Something IS wrong, she knew. Yet how could M be an illusion? She had a will of her own, she was cheeky and manipulative, she could be rude and impulsive; she was undeniably human.

Kiriyuu swallowed and looked at her feet. She took one step forward - stepping in this room felt like swimming through shark-infested waters. The tension was so thick it made her sick. Mukuro, sitting at the small foldable table, asked if she was hungry. She shook her head. Then he asked if she was thirsty. No, she wasn't hungry or thirsty… just feeling…. Empty and exhausted for no reason, and he turned to Chikusa, who was watching out the window. "…. Lanchia is fighting now."

**BANG!**

The sound seemed louder in her ears compared to the others, and Kiriyuu leapt in fright; Mukuro calmed her down. She didn't seem to hear his gentle coaxing and continued to glance around cautiously suspiciously. "Hmm…" Mukuro put a hand to his chin as he looked away from the girl, as if he was in deep thought. "… Interesting."

Chikusa spoke this time, "The Vongola stopped the iron ball… The arcobaleno fired an instantaneous shot in less than 0.05 seconds… it must've been a special bullet."

"Special or not, that is nothing compared to the talents of little Kirie-chan." Mukuro replied. "But if it is the last one… They've fallen completely into our trap. Chikusa, I'll put you in charge of looking after little Kirie-chan if I'm not with her. Whatever happens, you must protect her with your life, understand?"

Kiriyuu perked up. "Mukuro, what about…?" Mukuro turned to her. Kiriyuu swallowed, and dropped her hand back down. "N-Nothing."

"…." Chikusa blinked back morosely, as he shot the girl a rather suspicious look. "…. Can we really trust her, Mukuro-sama?"

His smile widened at his response, and he turned to Kiriyuu. He pinched at her scar-less cheek and ruffled his hand through her hair again. "Of course we can, Chikusa. Isn't that right, my cute little Kirie-chan? You are so obedient unlike the rest of them."

She looked back down. "…I – "

"Now, we're another step closer to completing our plan for the Vongola 10th Boss." Mukuro added before she could reply, "Chikusa, go and see how Lanchia fares off. If he fails, finish him off."

Kiriyuu remained silent, but then she looked up, and – "… Mukuro?"

"Hm?"

"…The new world…" Kiriyuu blubbered out, as M continued to silently watch them. "The new world – "

"Ah, it will be just for the two of us. They've already proven themselves unworthy. They failed." He said as he moved back up away from her, smiling gently. "…No… You won't be like the rest of them. You won't fail me, will you… _Kiriyuu_?"

She blinked at him, and then she said out loud, "What about Chikusa… Ken… and…M?" _Remember, Kiriyuu, don't talk about M to other people. That's what she said, or she'll get me. Okay, this time, it is just me and Mukuro, so it's okay. Talking about her in front of her to other people is just as suicidal as this is._

"M.M? She has been defeated. The new world won't welcome weaklings like her."

"No, not M.M." Kiriyuu affirmed sternly. "I'm talking about _**M**_."

**Meanwhile…**

Elia battered her way back out of the undergrowth and into the clearing – where that boy who had run away from her previously was; he was crowded round with his friends, and some guy in black with a complexion almost equal to an ape was standing before them, bruised and bloody. Elia actually thought twice about going down, but sucked in her gut and rolled pencil-like downhill, landed shortly in front of them.

"Another one?!" Gokudera yelled, pulling out thousands of deadly dynamite towards her direction, as Elia gawked stupidly back at him, while Bianchi whipped up more of her Poison cooking in her hands.

For some reason, Tsuna immediately intervened as Elia screamed bloody murder. "No, no, no! She knows Kiriyuu!" He paused, then turned to her as Bianchi and Gokudera backed down, but were still giving her cautious looks. "Do you?"

"I already told you I'm her younger cousin!" She barked at him, her fists clenched tightly. "I'm not crazy! Mukuro had some kind of spell over me, but it's gone now! In exchange, he took Kiriyuu!"

"… Tsuna, who exactly is she?" Reborn said, looking at Tsuna expectantly.

"Uh… This is Kiriyuu's younger cousin, Elmo."

"ELIA!" She roared at him angrily. "It's ELIA! It's not THAT hard. El-ia, El-mo. BIG difference, dopehead."

"Hey! Don't you dare talk to Juudaime like that!!" Gokudera roared at her, but surprisingly enough, Elia stood her ground. Very unlike Kiriyuu, who would flinch and inch away.

"Gokudera-kun, it-it's alright… T-This is Elia, everyone." Tsuna said, with a sweatdrop as he winced terribly under the extremity of the volume of her voice, "… She's looking for Kiriyuu."

"Mukuro has her!" Elia shrieked, her eyes watering slightly.

"He's over there. Tsuna just beat him." Reborn replied, pointing at 'Rokudo Mukuro' (Lanchia) who was swaying slightly on his spot.

Tsuna gaped, "But Reborn, he just said he wasn't – "

"Shh."

Elia flicked 'Rokudo Mukuro' a look, and then turned back to them all, her lip and eye twitching as if she was suppressing a laugh. "…. Are you kidding me?" Everyone blinked at her. "That's not Mukuro." Elia replied as she pointed to him, "I've seen Mukuro. And **THAT** is not Mukuro."

"Wow, you're so nice." Gokudera croaked at her.

Elia whipped her head to the silver-haired guy. "… I'm sorry… _Do__** I**__ know __you__?_" She said sarcastically, with half-lidded eyes.

"She is right. I'm not Mukuro." The fake 'Mukuro' said, rolling his eyes somewhat at the hapless bunch in front of him, "Listen, Vongola – Mukuro's real objective is – " Suddenly, he perked up, and then – "MOVE!" He shoved Tsuna out of the way, just as a spray of needles showered like fierce hail into his entire left side of his body.

"It's that yo-yo freak again!" Gokudera squawked, as the fake Mukuro toppled over on the ground, the needles popping off his body, leaving blood to trickle down from the punctured holes.

"He's gone, Gokudera." Reborn said, "A hit and run."

"Yamamoto's alright – " Bianchi exclaimed, but then she looked at the girl – and let out a short gasp, "Oh no, the little girl…"

Everyone turned to Elia, who was also on the ground, more needles sticking out of her leg – the yo-yo guy must've gotten to her, too. Tsuna, Reborn and Bianchi rushed to her side, and she looked up at them weakly. "I-I'm okay…" She wobbled out, "… I was just too slow. I'll be fine; you should go now."

"But you're bleeding, Elmo-chan." Bianchi said, her sympathetic look made Elia feel even worse. "… She's poisoned, too."

She winced as a searing pain coursed through her entire leg, and let her head rest on the ground, "… If you guys do see Kiriyuu, tell her… Tell her… I'm sorry."

**Kokuyo Health Land Building…**

When Kiriyuu woke up – _again – _she was surprised that she hadn't sleepwalked this time, and the only one remaining in the room was Mukuro. No Chikusa. This regime was getting predictable yet terrifying. She actually felt glad, with only Mukuro here, sitting beside her. Ken and Chikusa made her uncomfortable. She was petrified of M. She looked at the clock on the wall. Apparently, she'd only been asleep for five minutes. She didn't even remember when she had fallen asleep. She was talking to Mukuro. And then… she fell asleep? Just like that?

"Mukuro, I… I think I have a sleeping disorder." She muttered out.

"A sleeping disorder?" He was stroking her hair gently, letting his fingers weave through her black locks, and he smiled at her as she rubbed her eyes tiredly. He should've been the only one she trusted. He should've been the only one she believed in. But now she wasn't so sure. "Why do you think so?"

"I keep waking up. In different places. I don't even recall myself falling asleep." She looked around. "I was asking you about M. Where is she? I've been looking for her. It's like she's completely vanished."

Mukuro watched her, with a small smile. Hm, Chikusa previously mentioned someone named M who Kiriyuu spoke to. He decided to wait. "….What about her?"

"Never mind. It's nothing, really." Kiriyuu mumbled out, disheartened, but then she realised that she would never have another opportunity like this, perhaps, "… Actually, if you don't mind me asking this… Why do you… want to remove the existence of the mafia so badly?"

Mukuro stiffened somewhat.

She was waiting for him to ask in response; _why are you obsessed with M with so much?_ Truth was, Kiriyuu had no idea why she was, too. It was some sort of strange fascination Kiriyuu had towards M. That was the wonders of M. However, he remained quiet. His reluctance to answer that question was masqueraded with a forged smile. "The same reason you want to erase the mafia too." Mukuro replied.

Kiriyuu blinked dumbly at him, then took a deep breath. "That's not good enough for an answer."

"You haven't asked me any questions yet, so I'm not quite sure how to respond to this one." He said, but his voice was brimming with confidence. Maybe… _too much confidence_.

"I've had questions ever since I came here. Okay, fine, I'll ask you now and you have to answer. What's the deal with M? Has she been following me?"

"Why do you keep calling her M?" He enquired.

"M. Yes, that's what you call her. Her. _**EM**_." Kiriyuu stated, quite angrily, too. M for god's sake. Frickin' M with her stupid ram skull, and those mind-games she plays. Stupid reverse psychology.

"You mean M.M."

"Not Em-Em, Em. Single M. Her full name is Tsuzuru M. She's the Gunrunner. What, is M.M her sister or something? Is she a crackhead like M, too?"

Mukuro gave Kiriyuu a long, hard gaze, and as she raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for his response - he let out a brief, almost helpless sigh. "…You're unwell, Kiriyuu."

"No, I am not unwell. I feel fine, thank you very much."

"It's the effect of the medicine I gave you."

"…What? The painkillers you gave me?"

"They aren't painkillers -- You… haven't been taking your medicine, haven't you?" He then deduced, and he frowned.

"Of course not; I don't NEED medicine, I'm perfectly fine." Kiriyuu exclaimed breathlessly at him. She didn't even know if it was shock or disgust that was feeding her growing frustration and anger at the moment.

"Kiriyuu, you have to take them. It keeps you… healthy, regrettably." He said.

"Healthy?"

He seemed reluctant. "…When we brought you here, your condition was very poor. If you didn't have your medicine, then you wouldn't have recovered so quickly."

"But you said you gave me illusions – "

"Illusions do not 'heal' pain. It hides pain."

Kiriyuu squinted in response, and rammed her hand into her pocket. She fished out the sachet that held the painkillers and handed them to him, "I haven't been taking the 'medicine'. So… M…" She mumbled sternly, firmly, " -- I want to know **NOW**. Who is M? Who is she really? Why is she not like other people? She scares me sometimes. And why won't she leave me alone? What does she want from me?"

"M." Mukuro repeated. But then he chuckled, and Kiriyuu glowered silently at him, "Chikusa thinks M is a spy."

Kiriyuu blanched immediately. "… A spy??!"

He nodded. "They have only heard her voice. They've never seen her before. But you have. You're apparently the only one she talks to."

_Silence. _Then Kiriyuu began spluttering immediately, "…That's not right. M was with me when we were supposed to meet Ken and Chikusa back at the scramble that morning. She was there! And she was there, in my room – we had breakfast and Ken came - and then we went to the lounge…. You were there, too, along with Ken and Chikusa. Ken saw her, he must've… at the fifth floor, when-when I was having the 'therapy' session. They must've seen her…"

Mukuro put a finger to his chin, "…….Kiriyuu… I ordered Ken and Chikusa not to tell you. I told them… not to tell you about it – "

"About what?"

" - If they witnessed any strange behaviour you may exhibit during your time here." He straightened himself in his seat and flexed his palms.

Her jaw dropped. "What do you mean, 'strange behaviour'?"

He shrugged. "Anything you perceived to be out of the ordinary, or disturbing. Obviously… you talk to a person named M and you think you have a sleeping disorder."

She realised something. _No-one else had ever seen M__**.**_"THAT'S NOT RIGHT!" She then screamed at him in frustration, "She talks to you! You give her orders! I saw you two! You two disappear into this room and come back some time later! She comes to me and tells me the orders that were supposed to be for me but then M admitted herself that she carried out the orders that were meant to be for me and told me something else – "

Mukuro gave her an odd look. Kiriyuu was growing hysterical and wasn't making much sense at the moment. "You're confused, Kiriyuu."

She blanched again. "…What?"

"I gave _**you**_ the orders."

The world around Kiriyuu faded, and everything that had happened was flashing before her eyes like a flickering reel of film, only there were so many gaps and most of them, M was in them. M was there in front of her, talking, giggling, smiling that horrid, jagged smile of hers. M winked and blinked, M spoke and joked. M was here, M was there, M was everywhere. She couldn't explain it. She just knew M was very much real and there. Kiriyuu did a double take once more.

"What? No, I've never – wait, you said you've never seen her before? Neither of you have?? Not even Ken or Chikusa? How come?"

He smiled, and Kiriyuu felt sick. _This is no time to be smiling. _"You tell me." He said.

Kiriyuu was seething. "BUT I SAW YOU! You and M – you're… I went with her, and we met up with Ken and Chikusa – we had to run away from Hibari! I…. She – IS SHE ONE OF YOUR ILLUSIONS!?" She demanded angrily yet exasperatingly, grabbing onto his arms and shaking him. She wanted to know the truth, but Mukuro did not reply. Kiriyuu tried again, expanding her words slowly for emphasis, "Did you make her come and TALK to me?" Still no response from Mukuro, but he was giving her a calculating look. Kiriyuu tried one last time. "Did you tell her to screw around with my mind? Tell me! TELL ME RIGHT NOW!!"

Still nothing.

"Why are you looking at me like that? What's _wrong_?!"

"Kiriyuu, you have to take your medicine, it will help calm you down." He said firmly, his hand on her shoulder.

"SHUT UP!" She growled at him, swatted his hand away fiercely, and then she stopped. She took a few shaky inhales of breath. _What's gotten into me? _"…I'm-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to – Mukuro, I'm so sorry, it just came out from nowhere – "

He closed his eyes and then re-opened them. "Kiriyuu – "

She knew the answer; she could see it in his eyes. _Either M is really an illusion or I'm…I'm… _"Am I… I'm the only one who can see M?!! B-But HOW? Is she - "

" - Kiriyuu," Mukuro suddenly interrupted, but he was smiling again and Kiriyuu suddenly began to find herself inching away from him, "I didn't 'make' another illusion. I certainly didn't 'make' an illusion to 'talk' to you and 'screw' with your mind." He sounded uncomfortable with using such words. He also sounded as though Kiriyuu had thoroughly insulted him by suggesting he had done such a thing.

"...Huh?"

"There is no-one here named Tsuzuru M."

There was a long silence. Then -

"….W-Wh…_What_?"

Kiriyuu gaped at him breathlessly, her eyes darting back and forth, but still glued onto his face. She searched for something to assure herself that she wasn't losing it, but there was no assistance from Mukuro, not this time. He did not give her a smile, he did not even blink those mismatched eyes of his, he did not even give an apathetic gesture like a pat on the head nor did he hold her hand – nothing, only a solemn look on his face, and she knew the answer.

He was serious.

Kiriyuu averted her gaze from him, now staring endlessly at the figure who had appeared from nowhere in front of the window, just behind Mukuro. A girl was standing there, in the green blazer and skirt, her black boots were caked with mud at the soles, her lowered head substituted with the ibex skull and the curled horns. A ragged, scratchy breath escaped from behind the skeleton mask.

…_But there is supposed to be no-one here named Tsuzuru M._

* * *

Sorry, no Hibari in this chapter today either. D:

I will explain in the next few chapters what is going on. Please have the patience and bear with me. Actually, thank you for bearing so much with me. You know... six sigma is something I learned in my MDP class. It's some sort of management strategy used to improve and ensure 'perfection' and reduce defects in work or something like that.

Anyway, see you guys later. Thanks again for the reviews.


	41. CORRUPTION

**PLEASE READ:**

**This chapter is written in** **Kiriyuu's POV**; experience the horrors of M from a doomed narrator!! (I missed writing in First person ever since I finished Cosmo G: Beyblade Style. It's something I find refreshing once and a while)

THIS CHAPTER WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Well, no, not really. Obviously **it's in a different writing style because I write differently in first person compared to third**, and... Maybe it'll change your perspective, that's all. This is what I call a BIG BOMB CHAPTER. It's pretty long, too. Hope you're comfortable.

Anyway, thank you for tolerating me -bows- I'm glad there are still some people who like this story. **PS. YOU MUST READ THIS CHAPTER COMPLETELY. THIS CHAPTER ALSO CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND SOME MATERIAL YOU MAY FIND OFFENSIVE.** Maybe I should get a beta. Bit too late for that now, though.

You know, I'm kinda wondering if Kiriyuu will have her own cult following or something after this.

**Chapter 41**

_C.O.R.R.U.P.T.I.O.N_

M doesn't exist.

But she drags me away from Mukuro by the scruff of my neck, marches me back towards the direction of my room in the Sanatorium (how ironic), with that goddamn Ibex skull helmet hanging over her head, the lower jaw crooked to a disturbing angle, rotted teeth arranged in a devilish grin. Her hair is matted and flayed like wet, mildewed leaves, while the Kokuyo uniform clings to her thin frame and suddenly she doesn't look as clean and kempt as she usually does. Instead, she's a hollowed-out shell of her former self, like everyone else here in Kokuyo. A ghost. A shadow. Derelict and broken.

Mukuro watches us from the doorway. He doesn't say anything, because he cannot see M. He just sees me walking stiffly down the stairs, almost tripping on the last step. As if some invisible person has pushed me.

In my room, M slams the door shut behind us. "Sit your ass down on the bed. You're in a lot of trouble." She snarls at me. I do as I'm told without a word. M then paces up and down the room like a caged tigress. "You talked about me in front of Mukuro. I told you NOT to talk about me behind my back."

Nobody else can see M. Just me. She is S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

"Don't you even think twice about lying to me; I know when you lie." She says, "When you lie, you twitch and jerk and your eyes go all over the place, you sweat like a pig, your knees shake and you have an uncontrollable itch in your butt."

My mouth hangs open slightly. I don't know what to say because I don't understand. Why am I the only person who can see M?

"I know your other secrets, too. You're scared of Yamamoto Takeshi's father. You hate the colour brown. You're allergic to prawns. When you eat, you always chew your food in the left side of your mouth. When you write, you use your left hand. When you draw, you use your right. When you shoot, you always use your right finger and wait for five seconds. When you talk to Hibari, you start the conversation with 'Hey, Hibari', and he goes 'What' and then you – "

"Stop it." I croak out; the swell of my mouth is dry like sawdust, "How do you know all these things?"

M has probably been wondering when I would be able to see reality. Truth is, I don't think I know myself what reality means anymore. Everyone perceives the truth in different ways. What you hear, probably isn't what everyone else is hearing. What you see, probably isn't what everyone else is hearing either. Everyone is stuck in their own realities. For me, I'm stuck in the realities of the mafia while other people are stuck in the realities of school or work. I wonder if M knew that I had great difficulty in distinguishing reality right from the start. It would've been easy to take over and 'talk' to me.

In my room, she tells me to get comfortable, that it'll be a _long_ and 'mind-numbing' speech. I will undergo a truly marvellous metamorphosis once I learn the truth, she says. It's time for me to get out of my cocoon. Face the real world. It is hard to accept the truth, she adds, her voice a low whisper. She hopes I am ready, because denial always came first.

But I never denied anything.

A snicker escapes her lips. "You thought I was an 'illusion'." The word 'illusion' spills from her mouth in a sarcastic, sing-song voice.

To me, I think I am sitting on my bed, looking at a girl named M who is obsessed with death, Mukuro, and hell-bent on making dramatic monologues that she called 'reverse psychology'. But in reality, I am looking at a stark, empty space. I can hear her voice. She is standing there. And I can see her. "You called yourself_** M**_. Your name is Tsuzuru M. You're Mukuro's 'girlfriend'."

M speaks once more; her voice is crisp and full of acidity, commanding, but blunt. They say they can only hear her voice. "Yes, I call myself M. The Gunrunner is my alias."

M is a gunrunner. She is a smuggler. She smuggles firearms and sells them to others for higher prices. Illegal. Everything about M is illegal. In Kokuyo, she must've smuggled weapons to Mukuro. I blink. Once, twice, three times.

M smiles.  
Maybe she is a ghost. I'm not sure.

In a panicked state, I look at the medicine sachet in my hand and rip it open; little white tic-tac shaped pills drop into the basin of my cupped hand and I greedily lift it to my mouth. I don't care if I'm going to be eating them all at the same time.

"Oh no, you don't!" M quickly jumps in, and we wrestle, but she effectively pries my hand away and the pills go flying to the ground, which is then unfortunately grinded into white dust under her boots.

I stare at her wide-eyed. She's not a ghost. I then look around my room desperately; I need something to protect myself. But where are my guns? I had three. My sniper – that's one. The gun Mukuro used on me back at the theatre – that's two. Then the other gun I used on him, also back at the theatre – that's third and last. "Y-You… gave the guns to Mukuro." I stammer out in disbelief.

"He asked nicely." M tells me, "But he didn't want the spare ammunition."

I look at her helplessly. "You gave him all my weapons?!"

"No."

M takes out my remaining gun from the leather holster attached to her upper thigh just under her skirt and shoots me in the right leg without hesitating. She doesn't recoil from pulling the trigger nor does she wince at the sound. A scream of pain rips out from the base of my spine, shredding out raw and bloody as the bullet hits me right in the thigh, and I keel over, clutching my bleeding leg in agony. Okay. She's definitely _**not**_ a ghost.

She reaches down after depositing the gun back in her belt, grabs my hand and shoves it away from the wound, then hisses sharply at me, "Do it."

…Do what?

"Hide it." M commands, and under the mask, her eyebrows are knitting together thoroughly into a tight little frown, "Hide the pain. Like Mukuro. Use _**his **_illusions."

"…I don't know – " I wheeze out helplessly, spluttering, coughing and writhing in agony all the same time. I'm the equivalent of a human butt wipe. "I don't know how!!"

"You'll die if you don't stop the bleeding."

"I don't believe this." I cry, biting on my lip while I try to flush out the pain. People who are crazy don't know that they're crazy – or turning crazy. I'm not… crazy. I gasp, hot tears still oozing from the corner of my eyes. "Stuff like this only happens in movies."

M smirks crudely behind her mask, making it wobble slightly, and steps back up. "Well, it's happening to you, so you better believe it."

…But… How can this happen??

"What do you think?" M snarls back, "How do you think it happened? You really won't get smart overnight, do you? I might as well just spell everything out because you're so goddamn dumb and always will be."

….I… I - No. NO. **NO. **You're not real. M's not real. I try to assure myself by taking deep breaths. In and out. In and out. It doesn't work. I feel even worse. I pry the bullet out and another earth-shattering pain sets off like an alarm.

(You're not real.)

"I am real. I'm real in your mind. Not in anyone else's."

…And that's why you didn't want me talking to other people about you. I wince at her, trying to block out the pain in my leg. But Mukuro –

"_**You**_ are the one with the odd fascination with Mukuro - and death, not me."

_Fascination?_ I deadpan immediately. I'm not OBSESSED with_ Mukuro_. Or DEATH.

"Yes, you are."

No, I'm not. I couldn't be. I _wasn't_. (I JUST FREAKING HELL WASN'T.)

"The reason why you are fascinated by Mukuro is because he is someone you perceive as perfect. He is the one who can give you what you want. To you – Mukuro bears a resemblance to Hibari - however, he is different compared to Hibari on an extreme scale. Mukuro is gentle, he is nice to you, and he displays genuine affection for you. You can't help but like Mukuro in some way or the other. Hibari has never done any of the above and now that someone else is finally giving you what you truly want, you are curious and, well… fascinated."

I take a hand off my bleeding wound. It's stopped. For now. Is that…Am I… using an… illusion?

M doesn't seem to notice. "… And the reason you are fascinated with death is because you die in the future. And you began to unconsciously think about it all the time: _**Why**_ do I die? _**How**_ do I die? _**What**_ happens to people after they die? _**Where **_did I really die? _**Who**_ is my murderer? Was it really Hibari?? Your fascination with the two unconsciously evolved into a somewhat unhealthy obsession."

_Couldn't be, no no. No. No NO. _But… M… How could you? I… looked up to you. You were a friend… I… liked you.

"Oh yeah? Well, I never liked you. You're the fucking trash of this world."

I grit my teeth in response. But I was here first. I'm the one here. I've always been here. I was the one with Hibari. I was the one with the Vongola. I was the one who discovered that I'm supposed to die in –

"Oh. You think so, do you?" M retorts with another delirious smirk, "… Okay, think before the time when you found out about the whole I-die-in-Ten-Years-thing – when you got hit by the bazooka and met Spanner - and think back…. Waaaay back, like before you arrived at Japan. Your life in Italy."

I don't know where she's going with this.

"Don't question, or I'll hurt you again. You know I don't want to, Kiriyuu. So… _think_…What were you like then? What were you like when you were back in Italy, in the Academy, when you were in the Giglio Nero? Remember, think fast, think hard."

I try to remember. I try. _Hard_. But I can't. Nothing pops up to me like a flashing sign with neon lights anymore. Nothing. I've lost it completely. The world is already shattering around me and it's just getting worse. I might as well just dig a hole and bury myself. They'll put a tombstone when all the mud and gunk is over my still-warm and alive body and half-dead brittle flowers will grace my grave. Hell, I don't think anyone will even come to my funeral. Certainly not Hibari.

"Of course you've changed. You changed just for him; you dumbed yourself down."

…I really don't seem to remember what I was like back in Italy. I realised I'd been in Namimori too long. And people in Namimori were… different. Maybe with the town of Namimori, and its inhabitants, I changed. Even Hibari changed me. Like the way I changed my appearance after breaking up with Longchamp. Everyone feels ugly at least some point in their lives. I'm just feeling ugly every morning and every evening. Ugly every day.

"Exactly." M replies, her eyebrows furrowing, "So maybe you're the **Other One**. Not Me. Maybe you're not Ottuso Kiriyuu at all but a _Figment of My Imagination_. Maybe you haven't been what you think you've been this entire time."

I pale. No, it can't be. M is just a little voice in my head. Not even a conscience. She's something more, but nothing less. But wait, M is a person I met; she's morally insane and I have seen her and she has brown hair and blue eyes that become little black beads whenever she was scheming, whenever she had something up her sleeve. M is medium in height and she is fit. She is sneaky, manipulative and sly. She is just like any normal human being, only her mind is more warped than others.

I slowly get up from my seat on the bed and stand in front of her. We are both roughly the same height; it is the helmet that makes M appear bigger and intimidating. My fingers shakily latch onto the rims of the skull helmet, and M's blue eyes blink back at me expectantly. I try to lift the helmet off M's head. It's not moving.

"That's my head - "

I drop my attempt immediately and step away. I can't believe it. I'm too scared to take the Ibex skull helmet off of M's head. I'd take it off and then realise M looks exactly like me – because it IS me under that helmet.

I hoped this was a dream. Or a nightmare. Whichever one works better. I've been having so many nightmares and dreams I can't tell the difference, which one is better, or worse? It doesn't matter anymore. Is this even real? Maybe I'm still back in Italy, in my box bedroom in my single bed, sleeping, waiting for day to break and for my next Giglio Nero assignment. Only… I wasn't, because I've already receive that assignment. The assignment to assassinate Hibari. My head clenches and I retreat back to the bed, almost slipping on the puddle of my own blood. I curl up and close my eyes, wishing, wishing very tightly.

The light switches on.  
I'm sleeping.

"_**Hey, you."**_

"Huh?" I look up. M is there, at the foot of the bed. It isn't daylight anymore, it's dark. I'm not sitting in the bed; I'm lying on it, drenched in sweat with the covers pasted over my blood-covered legs. There's a scalpel lying beside me on the table.

"_**Yes, you. Hope you aren't asleep that fast, Ottuso Kiriyuu. Yes, I know your name. Kirie-chan. Oh, little Kirie-chan. Mukuro thinks you're the most adorable thing he's ever seen."**_

The words stroll out my tongue regardless. "You are…?"

"_**...They call me the Gunrunner. Ken's the half-animal, half-human freak of nature - but he's mostly 75 percent animal, and Chikusa's the geek who fiddles with yo-yos."**_

"I meant your name, and not anyone else, or any alias you might have."

"…_**Hm. Nobody's really asked me my name before. It's Tsuzuru M."**_

Bullshit.  
Tsuzuru M is my hallucination. No-one else's.

I grab the scalpel and fiercely throw it at her, but then she vanishes and the scalpel misses its target but clangs against the wall with a cold, harsh jostling clatter. I groan; the sensation of déjà vu bludgeons my head and I'm sure this has happened before. That's how I met M.

I wake up.  
I'm still in my room, but its back to broad daylight and M isn't at the foot of my bed, but back at the door. Did Mukuro take me here? Did he remove the bullet from my shoulder?

"You really can't even tell the difference anymore, can you?" M snickers softly, "You're losing it."

The room stops spinning and I attempt to hold onto the last remaining piece of my sanity. "I talked to you. That's how I met you."

"You were sleeping."

I cradle my head in my hands again; M sits down beside me in the bed. I can feel the mattress sagging underneath her weight. She sighs, turns to me, "What you think you've been doing, isn't what you think you've been doing. Because I've been doing something else. Like that time when you thought you ripped up your diary, and then you woke up to find that it hadn't been ripped up at all. And that time, when we met with Ken and Chikusa after we left our house; you thought they were talking about me, but they were really talking about you. You were the one who took too long to reply to Ken so he thought there was a 'problem' with you. Remember?"

I look up in morbid dismay. "…. I wasn't doing anything. I was listening to **you**. But… if you're my hallucination and nobody else except from me can see you, then that means it was just me all along. I went alone back to the house. That's why… that's why he thought there was something wrong… he wasn't talking about you, he was talking about me." I croak out as I speak the grim vindication myself.

"Correct."

Deep breath. I smooth my hair back. Okay, think about what has happened so far. First, I meet M the night Elia fires a gun at me. "I saw you that night when Elia shot me. You were in the first row."

"That would be the first time I came to you. You were under Mukuro's influence. Well, some of his influence, anyway. Remember? He had the entire theatre under his control. It's not surprising that you were still exposed to a small extent of his power though you thoroughly resisted most of it."

How could I have resisted Mukuro's powers in the first place? _He had the entire student body under his control!! _

"You're special, Kiriyuu. And the answer to your question is simple. Your mind was already in a mentally unstable state when you met him. Mukuro's powers would have not much of an effect on someone who was already wacked like you." M replies, with a crude sneer.

"B-But you already knew them. You knew so much. Ken being half animal and Chikusa – "

"You're _not _as dumb as people think you are. Mukuro already addressed to his cronies beforehand, so catching onto names and identifying people wasn't so hard. Didn't you know that people with serious mental disorders become more acute to their surroundings without even realising? And you already learnt about the Estraneo famiglia history before, remember? Giglio Nero History Lesson. Four years ago, back at the _Museo Crimonologico_ - "

" - di San Gimignano. The Estraneo were featured in a small, ambiguous section of the museum as the most brutal family in mafia existence, known for the torture and experimentation carried on their own family members, especially on _children_. They often combined animal DNA with human DNA, other experiments were more humane - such as injecting genes that would increase agility and strength. Another experiment was interchanging normal body organs for enhanced organs with specific functions. Usually these genetically modified organs rejected the receiver and many patients died."

I take a deep breath.

"…Their most famous crime was the **Forbidden Bullet**." I finish for M. I remember (Cryptomnesia, perhaps).

"Good. It's not that hard. Honestly, Kiriyuu, I did expect more from you… But now all I'm doing is answering questions you already know the answer to." M grins.

"What do you want with the Estraneo family, M?"

"You can answer that yourself, too."

I hesitate. A few seconds pass. I suddenly know the answer to that as well. "….You want the Forbidden bullet for yourself. That's why you wanted to take something from Mukuro's room. That was the reason for the Hide and Seek game. But - "

"But what?"

Why it would be here? I don't understand what she wants. "The Forbidden bullet doesn't exist anymore."

"Oh…" M giggles; little, crystal peals of laughter, "You think so, do you?"

I begin to doubt what I have just said. "This is all a mistake. I can't be you. And you can't be me. I'm not taking part in anymore of your 'games'."

"You're the most important player in the game, Kiriyuu."

Deep breath. I need something to justify that M and I are NOT the same person and we DON'T use the same body but at different times. My thoughts land onto the precise morning I woke up in Kokuyo. M came in with the ram skull on her head and she had brought breakfast. Eggs and bacon. Ken cooked. They were horrible.

"_**You **_were the one who had breakfast." M tells me.

_You stole my food._

"No, you'd _**already**_ eaten your food. You just don't remember."

_I saw you eating._

"Then you were eating."

_But there were two plates._

"No, there was only one." M replies brusquely. "You were hallucinating things again, as usual."

Deep breath. _But you were bleeding_. "You cut yourself when you climbed through the window to the house when we broke in."

"Look at your own hand."

There is a slight hesitation, then I cautiously spare a passing glance to my left hand. There is the small cut from the glass I received when I was climbing through the broken window. M then lifts her own left hand, and the same cut is on her palm, too. Exactly the same.

"…But you scraped your knees, too." I croak out warily.

"Look at your knees then." A small, wry smile spreads over M's face once more, and I swallow, when I ultimately realise that my knees would've been scraped, too. Seeing my guilty reluctance scribbled all over my face, M laughs, victorious once more.

Deep breath. I think back to the time Hibari was following us, no, chasing us. It was dark, and whether or not Hibari saw M or not, it was obvious that Hibari wouldn't even have seen M, let alone me. But back outside -

"Hibari only saw you running back to Kokuyo. You led him here. You trapped him."

Hibari almost choked me back there when his chain went round my neck, and you won't have that –

M interrupts promptly by unbuttoning the top button of her blazer that is covering her neck. The skin over her throat is painted with red, black and blue. She smirks. I pale. I need something else. Think, think, think. Oh yes, that time I had the argument with M. I found out M had been taking the orders from Mukuro – the orders that were supposed to be for me to carry out, and she had done them herself.

"But you also hit me." I say, my voice growing louder with every ounce of frustration and impatience I had been harbouring for the past few days. "With this stick thing – "

M laughs again, "That was me taking over, using force."

But you held the door of my room shut from the other side. I couldn't get out.

"That door is rusty. You know that yourself. Feel free to try it out if you don't believe me."

I look at the door and force my gaze back down to my lap. She's right. What happened after M hit me? I couldn't find her. She just disappeared somewhere. I was chasing a ghost. A shadow. My shadow. I've been chasing my shadow all along and it's taken me back to square one as expected. And I'm scared. I'm scared of everything now. "…That room opposite mine, it's the storeroom."

"Well, yeah."

I hesitate to say this. "A-And you take my place…when I'm… sleeping"

"There is more, you know - every time when you think you're doing something, like sleeping, as you mentioned before, or whatever; I go and continue where you left off. You black-out but you don't even realise. You think your life runs smoothly but it doesn't and you even blamed it on a sleeping disorder! Don't make me laugh. There are a lot of gaps but you don't even know. I'm in charge when you're 'out' and I run your life when I'm 'in'. I live."

I look at her numbly.

M continues, her grin widens to a considerable extent under the mask. For some reason, I can identify her expressions exactly, "I talk to Mukuro, not you. I receive orders from Mukuro, not you. I told you before - Mukuro's orders for you, I took them and did them instead – "

So she does talk to Mukuro.

"However, we led Hibari here on our both accord; you thought it was an accident that we stumbled across him, but it really wasn't. It was part of Mukuro's plan, and mine. On the other hand, Mukuro and I led Tsuna here purposefully. I led everyone here. I even attacked them with your sniper rifle, with your own bullets, with your own hands. And all your little friends will see _**you **_going against them one by one by allying with Mukuro, all as YOUR own doing. They will think, YOU have betrayed them, and that YOU have betrayed Hibari."

The colour drains away from my face. "…Why?"

"I'm doing everything I can to ruin your life."

"WHY?" I scream, and I kick a stool over, before swaying on the spot. Get out get out get out. I kick and scream, flail and punch at the empty air. Get out. Yeah, that's right. Come out and fight. Don't follow my shadow. Heck, don't be my shadow. Get out here and FIGHT ME. "_Why?!_"

M appears behind me. "I hate you." Pause. "_I despise you_. But you need help, Kiriyuu. You need my help."

No. Not your help.

"You're not going to a psychologist or whatever happy-group-holding-hands-therapy session. I won't let you."

"I wasn't planning to. I'm not crazy."

"Nobody's saying you're crazy except yourself. Don't you get it? You've been through so much just by yourself, and it's taken a toll on you. You retreated into a shelter, and dragged out this hidden, unforeseen side from within you to take your place. You want me to take your place. And that's why I'm here for you. I've never been there for you until now. And do you know why, _now_? At this time? Out of all times?"

…._Why?_

"Because you've finally realised how weak, pathetic and stupid you are. And you need help. MY help." M croons viciously at me, "Haven't you realised I tutored you at some point? I taught you some things. I told you things."

M's been running my life and I didn't even realise. I then shake my head viciously that it starts to hurt. "You're nothing. You're just an Imaginary Friend." I hate to admit it. My adolescent years weren't entirely normal, perhaps.

"NO. I'm not an imaginary friend. You're too old for that. What I am…" She points to herself, "This is what you're like, Kiriyuu – what you're really like – who YOU really are deep inside. This is you cornered and showing a completely different side to the people around you. And I will change your life. _**Our **_life." M adds, "But I hate you for letting it happen."

Let it happen?

"Yes. You let it happen. You let everything happen. You let Hibari push you around. You let the experiment happen. You let yourself die in the future by the hands of your own family AND the Vongola. You let Elia shoot you. You could've prevented all those things. You could've killed Hibari if you really put some effort into it and didn't let stupid, unnecessary emotions cloud your mind. You could've stopped the experiment if you left Hibari precisely at the time when Guiseppe came with Elia to visit you back in Namimori way, way back. You could've saved yourself. You could've avoided Elia's bullet, too. You could've done everything."

I inhale shakily.

"But there's something within you that didn't. It was your personality. Your stupid, goody-two-shoes personality. You're also far too dependent. And look where it's taken you. You're alone. You're a failure. That's why I'm taking your place. Nobody pushes me around. Nobody tells me what to do. Nobody's going to kill me in the future. Hell, I'm not YOUR hallucination, you're MY freaking hallucination."

I can't believe what I'm hearing. "Is Mukuro behind all of this?"

"'This'?"

"This." I emphasise, "Me - talking to you, and you talking back to-to me, although you're _really_, probably n-n-not real - "

"No. Mukuro isn't doing this to you. He's not doing anything but taking care of your pretty little face and your shoulder." M replies bluntly.

Oh shit.  
Dissociative personality. Multiple personality. Split personality, whatever.

M is my exact opposite.

But split personalities aren't even supposed to exist. I've heard about court cases - people claiming that they were innocent and didn't murder, or rape, or do whatever to victims because it was their split personality. Split personalities emerge from people who had suffered severe childhood trauma and, or abuse. Everything that's happened to me could count as some form of severe, psychologically-damaging abuse and trauma. Yet, what if M **is** the one in future? And M could be right –maybe, just maybe, M** is **what I am really like, in personality and almost everything else. I just didn't realise. There's a lot of things I didn't realise. Now everything that has happened to me felt out of my control and my life has never been in shambles like this before.

_M said so herself… what I think I've been doing… isn't what I've been doing._

Reality begins to bend and distort.

You're suddenly the skinned, stuffed model in an anatomy museum, with students pointing at your exposed wobbly bits and taking notes. You're the unlikely poor sod who was handpicked ball-in-a-box-style by a guy named Spanner to participate in a demoralising experiment. This all happens in the future. You're stuck in the past. People you don't even know have screwed up your life. You don't even know Hibari Kyouya well enough and he's ruining your life. You don't even know who this Tsuzuru M is and she's screwing up your life. You don't even know Rokudo Mukuro that well either and he's trying to take control of your life. Your cousin/apprentice who you thought would at least hold some form of respect for you has shot you in cold blood and ran away without thinking twice or even looking over her shoulder just to see if you survived. You've deserted your friends because they won't understand. You're left with nothing but the clothes on your back. Hell, they're not even yours.

You've been shot twice.  
Your face is also permanently disfigured.  
You're scared.  
You're alone.  
You're only 14 years old.  
You're ready to point a gun at your head.  
You're ready to give up.

M says, "You can't give up now."

Where did the name Tsuzuru M come from anyway? A memory? But I don't remember. M, as in the letter of the English alphabet. M, as pronounced in the English alphabet.

Em.  
(Me.)

The objective case of the first person pronoun _**I**_.  
It's been 'me' all along.

I start to pray.  
But I don't believe in god anymore.

I've been used and dumped by everyone around me. They've abandoned me and left me to rot in Hell. Earth is Hell. There's no such thing as Heaven. Life is playing me and taking me for granted. I've had enough and it's too much. It's left me with this creature named M who I don't know is a figment of my imagination or just an illusion. I don't want this life anymore.

"Mukuro isn't a god."

I didn't say that.

"You've been thinking it." M says, "You worship him. You think he's a god because of his 'new world' gimmick."

I don't 'worship' Mukuro.

"Then you fear him."

No, I don't 'fear' him either. Just drop it. Whatever I 'have' towards Mukuro, I don't care anymore. M holds her arms up, shrugs casually. What if M really is what I am meant to be all along? What if M's the one who will get killed, and now that she's found out early than she will die in the future, she's finally emerged and is now taking over me? Maybe that is why there seems to be a dramatic difference to my personality 10 years from now. I saw the profile of my future self. I hardly look like that. It was me, but also… not. Not entirely. If that made any sense…

The sudden realisation of what had been happening for the past few hours slaps me harshly across the face; I'm ashamed of my obliviousness and unawareness, my weakness to allow this happen, and how this would happen in the first place. These things don't happen or occur to everyone. It's like a mutant disease. It's spontaneous and random. It just had to happen to me. Me and my time in Japan, spent wasting days at school, being bullied on the very first day. Me and my haywire emotions that had to unexpectedly land on Hibari; the stiff, wooden plank of this generation. Me, and my unfulfilled dreams to become the greatest hitman that ever lived, which became unfulfilled after I found out I'm somehow bald and pushing up daisies in ten years time. Me, and my illusion with a sheep's head who has brainwashed me into thinking that we share the body at various times.

Me and my illusion, my split personality. My alter ego.  
(My evil twin)

Why is this happening? How did this happen? How could it happen? But it _was_ simple,really.

_I couldn't handle what was happening in my life.  
__It was too much.  
__I wished for a way out. I wanted to be stronger, smarter. I couldn't cope. I… wanted someone to understand what I was going through, too.  
__I wanted to talk to someone.  
__And M came.  
__She could cope.  
__She could do anything._

_She was everything… I wanted to be._

That's right. M is here for me. So is Mukuro. But that isn't enough. I wanted more - which is why M wants more, too. M is a gunrunner. I'm a sniper. We both handled guns at one point. And I participated in a gun smuggle once. It was my most vivid memory of my activities in the Giglio Nero. I don't like to think about it. I kept it bottled up. I don't know what M did when she was with Mukuro. They could've done anything, and I know what I mean by '_anything'_. I'm cheating on Hibari. Hell, I probably _had_. I thought I wanted Mukuro subconsciously. So M wanted Mukuro. I hate Hibari, so M hates Hibari. I want revenge, and justice, all that crap that seems hardly significant now. So M wants revenge, maybe not justice. She just wants to destroy the world around her now. Why didn't I see it before?

I feel sick; no wonder there seemed to be unnecessary contact Mukuro inflicted on me. His hand on my waist, his hand brushing my hair, the way how he smiles. I don't even go near him half the time. I've barely spoken to him for more than an hour. Yet I blank out whenever he does that. It's like the world around me has melted and there's nothing else I can think of except from him. And somehow I want him. Although, maybe I can erase his face and slam Hibari there instead. I'll close my eyes. I want him to hold my hand and touch my hair and smile at me. I want him to tell me I am special and I am obedient and unique unlike the others. I want to feel important for once.

I want to feel important to someone, for once. Only once.  
How _Sad_.

I don't have that towards Hibari. It's different. Hibari is Untouchable. When I was with Hibari, there was already the feeling that we had each other in some way. We were With Each Other. But never For Each Other. Hibari doesn't smile. Hibari doesn't hold hands. He doesn't tell me I'm special.

And then there is Mukuro and eM. Mukuro and eM in the room. Mukuro and eM talking. Mukuro and eM laughing. Mukuro and eM holding hands. Mukuro and eM entangled in each other's embrace. M's conniving grin. Mukuro's lucid smile. His arms around her tightly, his lips on her neck, his teeth grazing her neck slightly, at the other side of her neck, opposite Hibari's mark. Urgh. My hand lands on my neck. I can feel Hibari's mark… and there is something else on the other side of my neck, too. Another mark. It is deeper, and it stings slightly when I touch it. I take my hand away slowly, shakily. But what Mukuro and M had wasn't even romantic. M thinks she likes Mukuro because I like Mukuro. What was worse is that I can't even REMEMBER what I had **done** when M took over. I can't tell how sick, disgusted and angry I am at myself, somewhat humiliated.

My face burns with shame. Maybe more.

"Mukuro doesn't know the difference between us." M says, "Yet."

I pale all over again. Mukuro doesn't know eM exists. He thinks I was the one with him in the room._ I'm the only one who can see M. Chikusa and Ken hear us talking. M has also been impersonating me. That means no-one can tell the difference between us either._

M says, "I am everything you want to be, Kiriyuu."

_I led Hibari here._

M says, "I am what Mukuro wants me to be."

_I attacked my friends._

M says, "I am what everyone wants me to be."

_I let myself die in the future._

M says, "I am the new world."

_I let this happen._

Then M says, "I am **your** new world, Kiriyuu."

…_..I let this happen to me. It's all my fault. _

_I....I... _

You hate yourself.  
All over again.

And it's not because you've been pining over a guy named Hibari Kyouya who doesn't give a shit about you.

Then I am screaming, screaming and screaming until my throat is ripe with something like acidic vomit in the back of my burning throat and my lungs are tired, almost on the verge of exploding and I'm gasping for breath, gasping for help, gasping for someone to come and tell me the road to salvation is by admitting I may perhaps have a serious mental disorder, yet I continue to scream, howling into the empty void, while M's laughter screeches through my ears like nails on a board and my fingers are ripping away at my hair, ripping at bundles and bundles but that's not all, I want to rip everything out of me. Everything that makes me who I am and what I am because I don't want to be myself anymore. I scream. I keep screaming and screaming, wishing the voices to go away and LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE. But they don't. They rebound and come back. I'm not in my room but somewhere dark with two voices ringing in my head.

Two different voices, but from the same person.

"Kiriyuu, you have to understand…" M continues, still smirking as she looks at me directly from across the room, "Me being here, isn't such a bad thing as you think. I know what's best for you, because I am **You**, and you are **Me**."

I'm sobbing silently, my face stricken with tears. I'm on the floor curled up, shaking uncontrollably and drenched wet in a swirling puddle of my own waterworks. A marvellous display of what I have become; my hair matted and flayed like wet leaves, clothes hanging off my starving frame. Just like M. "It… It doesn't make sense…"

"Nothing in this world makes sense." M grunts out, "If everything did, then everyone in this world would be insane just like you are, because no-one can handle the truth."

There's a growing lump in the back of my throat. Not vomit.

M's voice - my stupid voice but on a lower pitch dripping with elusive quality - comes again: "You must've realised by now…There's really no more 'Me', or 'You'."

"We."

"…That's right. You're getting it now." M says, and she points to the helmet. "Remember I told you I got this from the zoo. Well, we both went - that night, when you couldn't get to 'sleep'. You just don't remember. You thought you were sitting up in bed listening to Ken snoring all night."

"You're not the one wearing the skull helmet." I stammer out, and M smiles a little. "… _**I am**_."

A split second later, and there's a weight over my head. The helmet had been on me the whole time. It's heavy, but clean, all glossed and varnished into eggshell white with a small hint of grungy yellow. It's not as spectacular up close as I thought it was before. The elastic strap is fixated through a small hole in the ram's skull, maybe where its ears once were. I stare through the eye sockets. I can see clearly. I can see M standing in front of me.

"Good, you really are catching on." She says, "Now get your fucking ass from the ground and stop looking so goddamn pathetic."

I don't move from my spot. "There are still a lot of things I don't understand."

"You don't have to. It's probably better that you don't know." She replies, "We… are partners in crime, Kiriyuu. I'm just as guilty as you are."

M is right.  
M is always right.  
_I'm just as guilty as you are._

"You still don't believe what I am saying? Fine, I'll tell you a story about a girl… It's really, really… hilarious. It's so funny, Kiriyuu, that you won't be able to stop laughing at how silly, and unreal it is."

I don't want to hear it.

M clears her throat, begins her story, "Once upon a time, there was a little-wittle 14 year old girl named Ottuso Kiriyuu Salvatrice Lacole - dumb name, I know, but hey; it was her mother who decided that, not her, so she has to stick with it and it's on her passport, unfortunately – anyway, this girl, she lives in Genoa, Italy. One night, she is sleeping. And she dreams, like any frickin' normal human being would. She dreams for a long time, and in this dream, she is a hitman. In this dream, she belongs to some mafia family called the 'Giglio Nero'. In this dream, she gets an assignment to assassinate a boy she has never even seen before named Hibari Kyouya who lives aaaaall the way in Japan. In this dream, she falls in love with him, and she can't bear to kill him because she loves him soooo much. In this dream, this, er… 'Romeo and Juliet' dream, it doesn't go the way she wants it to go, and they start to deviate from one another by all these (terrible) misunderstandings. In this dream, she gets hit by a magical bazooka that transports her magically ten years into her future!"

M laughs, "She finds out she dies in the future by the hands of – oh! How ironic – Hibari Kyouya, the love of her life from ten years ago and not just that – her stupid apprentice, little Ellie who will not be so little anymore and will have her own sneaky motives, is apparently the one who tells on her! So, her future self, is left braindead and bleeding, practically cut her skull open in the helicopter and tampered with her brain. When she wakes up, she's all hollowed out and stripped of humanity and dignity. Everyone in her family labels her as a traitor and her apprentice takes her job. Takes everything, actually."

She still isn't finished yet.

"Now she's bald because they operated on her brain, and she can't move, confined to a wheelchair and trapped in a straitjacket. Now, her younger self from ten years ago - meets a guy named Spanner who lurrrves robots; he tells her that in the near future, the Vongola, another mafia family, and the Giglio Nero, merged with another family called the Gesso to become the Millefiore, and they have been experimenting the Vongola's downfall by targeting their family members in the past. Which is why, the Millefiore sent a message, ten years ago, to their past counterparts, ie, the Giglio Nero, ie, YOU, when you were only 14 years old, to kill Hibari, who will become one of the biggest threats to the Millefiore ten years later."

I'm waiting for the end.

"Now, as the dream goes on - oooh, it's a nightmare now, actually - ahem, she leaves Namimori, she leaves the love of her life forever and he's left her with something that will stay forever, too. She meets this guy who gives her all this attention and he's so nice to her, she's so surprised that she acts like that Mowgli kid from the Jungle Book who discovered the human village! But it gets even worse, because she meets a girl named M who tells her that the guy she's just met, isn't what he seems. No, in fact, he wants a war. And he's going to use her for this war. Now she feels abandoned and betrayed all over again. She doesn't know who to trust, and she's all scared and alonce once again - "

I look down. "What about the end?" I ask. "What will happen in the end?"

"The end?" M repeats quietly, then, her voice grows into laughter, "You know how it ends, Kiriyuu; Spanner already told you."

..... She's right. She's right about everything.

"Isn't there a way to... stop it?"

She shrugs. "... Now... Doesn't everything I've just told you sound completely crazy? Like some kind of warped, twisted fairytale?! Isn't it… just madness and everything else? Doesn't it make your head spin around and around??!?" M exclaims madly, holding her head in her hands and grinning. She giggles maniacally and spins around and around in circles, staring at the ceiling. Then she flops over the bed, and laughs. She can't stop laughing.

"… It _**is**_ crazy. It… doesn't even feel real." I mutter out.

So why would I find this surprising, right?  
(Why would I find it surprising that I have a split personality named M?)

Well, I don't.

"Nobody will know the difference between us. So let's get out of this together, shall we?" M appears by the window of the door, staring out from the tiny jail bars. She suddenly holds herself and sighs, her face forlorn, stuck in her own sense of melancholy.

There's suddenly a knock on the door.

I begin to panic as M turns to me abruptly. It's Mukuro. He's worried about the maniacal laughter that suddenly turns to uncontrollable sobbing that's been going on for the past half hour, all coming from my room. Yeah, right. She turns round and smiles at me. You know what to do, she says.

I-I do?

M tells me to open the door, so I get up and unlock the door. Mukuro is standing there, with that cool, apathetic smile. M's standing right beside me but Mukuro pays her no attention whatsoever, his eyes on me. He sees my bleeding leg and asks if I am alright.

_Tell him that you're fine. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with you. _

My face goes ghost-white. "I-I'm fine."

He asks me why I am holding a ram's skull in my hands. I follow his gaze, and look down at my hand. M's voice emits from the skeleton. She tells me not to answer to that question because it is none of his business.

He's looking at my bloody leg.

"A small accident." I stammer out, with a light shrug. Though I don't know what kind of small accident will have me bleeding like this. "I'm fine, really." M tells me there's a change of clothes in the cupboard to my left. But it's another spare Kokuyo uniform.

He doesn't believe me one bit. I can tell. He asks if there's anything I want to tell him. Anything else about this person called 'M' who apparently only I can see.

_Smile at him and tell him it's nothing. You've taken your medicine finally, and you're feeling much better. You just saw and spoke to someone named M because you haven't been taking your medicine. Tell him to get lost because you want to sleep now._

"I-I just took my medicine." I fake a yawn, "I'm kinda tired now."

He looks at the sole of my boots. They're covered in white dust. The medicine. He raises an eyebrow.

_SMILE GODDAMNIT._

I try to smile. "It's alright, really. I h-have it handled."

You certainly do.

Though Mukuro does still seem concerned, there's nothing else he can do. I think he knows. He smiles and reaches for my limp hand and encases into his own; while I stare wide-eyed back at him, he brushes his lips over my bruised knuckles and then my jaw drops. WHUT? M kicks me in the rear and I stiffen, my mouth shuts back up. He goes away. I shut the door, heart pounding through my ears. What the hell was that? I sit back down on the bed, look at my hand, and suddenly an overwhelming sensation of shame grows in the pit of my stomach, blossoming into complete, full-frontal guilt.

M watches Mukuro leave. She knows he can tell the difference. But she turns back to me, and giggles, "That was easy, wasn't it?"

Hell no. You and your stupid games.

"Come on, I know you secretly enjoyed it." M says. She's jumping up and down on the bed again, ram skull balancing in my hands, "So, how about it, Kiriyuu? Let's get out of here."

Huh?

She's suddenly standing to my left, in the corner where the light from the window doesn't reach. A fervent grin spreads over her features. "…Let's finish off the game, and get rid of Mukuro. We don't need him."

Plan B.  
M's Plan B.  
(My Plan B.)

I'm going to get rid of Mukuro.

"You don't know what you're doing, or what to do anymore, or how to do it," M tells me, "So let's do it together."

I listen.

"Let's steal the Forbidden bullet for ourselves." M says, and I listen again. "Then we can do whatever we want. And _no-one_, absolutely NO-ONE, can tell us what to do anymore. Come on, Kiriyuu… it'll be _fun_."

She's crazy.  
But I listen.

I listen because I'm a follower now. I'm the ornamental nodding-dog with resentment flowing through my veins. I'm the team member with an eye for retribution. I'm done listening to myself and doing things MY way. M will be doing things her way from now on and I know it will end in the usual tragedy and anguish, so I _know_ I'm on the right road to self-destruction. I wouldn't have it any way anymore.

_Because only through self-sacrifice, will you find salvation._

And suddenly, you feel like you're on top of the world.

* * *

Wow, it's sort of like when Tom Hanks talks to the football in Castaway but even he sort of unconsciously knew that he was still talking to a football with a face painted on it. Yes, Kiriyuu has turned inevitably, morally insane. I've actually put up a lot of tiny hints in the past few chapters ever since M made her appearance that although suggested that although there was a slight problem with Kiriyuu, the source of the problem resided within this sinister character named M. I hope you managed to catch on.

**Please Read:**

If you don't understand what is going on, I will care to explain as simplest as I can, so don't worry :)

I guess it's sort of like a split personality Kiriyuu has. Whenever Kiriyuu 'blacks' out, she becomes M physically. Sometimes, Kiriyuu believes she is 'sleeping', when in reality, this 'M' personality has taken over and continues where Kiriyuu left off and does her own stuff, her own motives. Other times, Kiriyuu thinks she is doing something else (like ripping out her diary when she never did, or waiting outside for Mukuro and M to emerge from the room) but she isn't really. So Kiriyuu has a lot of 'gaps', and some fake memories she conceived herself – however, whenever she hears voices, she is actually hearing the voices of her external environment, whenever the 'M' personality has taken over. So Kiriyuu is sort of subconscious to her acute surroundings when M has taken over, however.

It really is kind of hard to get your head round, but I hope you have a brief idea of what I am trying to explain here. Usually, she sees M as an external human being. I can't remember where I got this from, but there was another interesting paragraph I looked at:

'…**There is also another thing called psychoaesthenia, where the victim will lose conscious of his own actions, but will see himself act and attribute his actions as someone else.'**

I think most of it has been explained okay in the chapter. If you're still confused, don't hesitate to tell me, but I will provide further explanations as the story goes. I also can't believe someone's used 'Fish and Chips' as their penname. I've become Fish and Chips 41. I want my _original name_ back. I want it back!


	42. The Killer Inside Me

Okay, back to third person point of view now. Thank you for the reviews.

**WARNING:** This chapter is a bit violent. This story is getting so dark all of a sudden...

**Chapter 42**

_The Murder _

Kiriyuu felt the nozzle of her gun pressed against her back. M clicked the gun, forced her to put on a clean uniform and marched her out of her room and down the corridor towards the direction of Mukuro's room. M wanted the Forbidden bullet for whatever reasons. Kiriyuu just wanted to get out of this alive. She would get therapy later. Her leg didn't hurt anymore. Her head wasn't spinning. She felt completely and utterly normal.

"We have to find Mukuro. He has the bullet. He isn't a careless idiot like you." M said.

She had just left her room and walked several paces down to see if Mukuro was in. He wasn't. M realised that Mukuro must be preparing for the Vongola's arrival by now, judging by how M.M, Birds and the other allies were defeated sequentially. Now, M marched Kiriyuu away from Mukuro's room and back to the main corridor. To Kiriyuu, M is holding a gun to her head. In reality, Kiriyuu is holding a gun to her head. Now, she found herself back at her own room, facing the door of M's supposed 'room'. No, the storeroom. The storeroom with secret stashes of Heroine, Prozac, Xanax and Valium, not to mention some old canned ham and spam. But mostly Prozac.

"Want to see who this room really belongs to?" M grinned.

"It's just the storeroom."

"Wrong." M said immediately, "Down there."

Kiriyuu looked at the slot M was apparently referring to; it was a slot identical to Kiriyuu's door, which she hadn't exactly paid attention to. M pointed the gun from Kiriyuu to the ground, gesturing firmly – Kiriyuu blinked slowly, then got down to her knees and carefully slid the slot backwards, revealing the inside of the dark room. She glanced back at M, who nodded. "Go on," She said, and Kiriyuu peered through. She couldn't see anything, but there was a dim light from the side; it was flickering slightly, and Kiriyuu could hear the crackling of wires and that horrible hissing sound from the pipes in the room. She couldn't see anyone inside, turned back to M. "Someone lives here?"

"Fuuta."

Kiriyuu whipped round immediately to face M. "_What?!_"

M sighed, "...Where do you think Mukuro got the ranking list? God, you're so stupid."

The girl stood up immediately regardless of a gun being pointed at her face, "I-I... What do you mean, _Fuuta? _He-He's really here? _What's he doing here? _And...And... How could you?! You _**knew**_ that Fuuta was here all along??"

M nodded. "Well, duh. He was there when you met M.M and those other creeps. You poor, delusional fool." M said, and then she looked at her fingernails.

Kiriyuu felt like as if everything had fallen out of her butt. "And you didn't do anything?!"

"Keep your voice down. Fuuta is the least of our problems." M pressed the gun further towards Kiriyuu, the nozzle practically smushing against her cheek. "We're going."

"No – "

"Shut it, you little shit." M growled at her furiously, and she shoved Kiriyuu further down the corridor, away from Fuuta's closed door, "I'm calling the shots here. We're getting out of this hellhole alive, and in order to do that, you have to listen to me."

She frowned back fiercely. "You can't kill me. If you kill me, then you'll be killing yourself, too."

At that point, M frowned. "...I didn't want it become like this." Then she laughed, her eyes twinkling mischievously. "You honestly think you can use that to threaten me?"

Kiriyuu paled somewhat.

"I'm capable of doing everything you're too afraid to do."

Pause.

"Like murder someone."

It happened in a split second – but she sensed what M was going to do next and she immediately ducked when M pulled the trigger, the gun shot narrowly grazed her ear, surprisingly enough - she was amazed she'd been quick enough to avoid it. A scream tore from her lips and she pushed herself away from M, stumbled away carelessly, further towards the double doors to the other conjunction of the corridor in a frantic attempt to escape.

M stood there, silently. "You're a hitman, Kiriyuu. I'm sure you must've killed someone in your life."

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly. NO! She'd never murdered anyone and she didn't intend to, even if she was a hitman!!

"Then you should be ashamed of yourself."

Her heart was beating rapidly, adrenaline pounding through her veins like crazy, and her mind spinning and buzzing with terror. What the hell was going on?! She and M shared the same body, right?! That means, if M killed Kiriyuu – then M would just be killing herself??! Kiriyuu's sweaty hands latched onto the handles of the double doors and she swung them open – to reveal M, standing on the other side – she immediately began to choke as two strong hands gripped the small of her neck, and she stumbled around carelessly.

" – W-What are you doing?!" Kiriyuu gasped helplessly, the air in her lungs compressed and squeezed out of her system forcefully. "I-I thought – "

"That we are the same?" M sneered, as she began to power over Kiriyuu, who was now forced to her knees, scraping off the dank, tiled floor. "…Yes, we are the same. But in our minds, our personality, we are diverse. Very, very, diverse. One of us is dominant over the other. And obviously, it isn't YOU. Therefore, you are a hindrance to me."

Kiriyuu paled, her arm still clamped over M's arms tightly.

" - If you think I am dissociated material, then I'm not like you at all and I can get rid of you whenever I like." M assured, with a widening smirk as the grip around Kiriyuu's neck tightened.

She tried to scream, but all she could manage were sharp gasps and guttural wheezing noises as her vision began to blur. Even though M wasn't even supposed to be real, it felt _**very**_ real and Kiriyuu didn't know anymore; what was real and what was fake. M's clenched hands gripped on harder, and Kiriyuu began to claw desperately at M's outstretched arms, drawing shards of blood and tears of flesh in a morbid, almost futile attempt to save herself as she was forced towards the ground, her knees almost giving way and collapsing underneath. She looked around helplessly; somebody, anyone?! She needed help, she needed to -

Kiriyuu squeezed her eyes shut and bit down, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth and onto the floor below. Her chest felt heavy and sore, almost on the verge of exploding. Her grip on M's arm was loosening, slipping back to her side.

...Killed by her own split personality?? She gritted her teeth and bit, hard, down on her tongue as she struggled for breath; darkness slammed her vision and then –

When she didn't move anymore, didn't struggle or cry out in that little, choking, throaty voice of hers, M let go, and Kiriyuu's body fell backwards with a loud 'thump' as an unmoving pile on the floor like a splayed puppet. Kiriyuu's neck had a new red stain on it, outlining the hands and fingerprints. She wasn't moving at all.

M smiled, breathing heavily, her hands were shaking yet tired, with ash-white knuckles and rigid, aching fingers. She nudged Kiriyuu with her foot.

"Well, that should keep you out of my way for now."

She did it. She got rid of the Kiriyuu personality; the unnecessary, cowardly, compassionate personality who was too sensitive and cared too much for others. Well, for now. M brushed a hand through her hair. It was so exhausting, but Kiriyuu had always been too stubborn to back down willingly. Then she knelt down to Kiriyuu's level, touched her cheek and shook her own head slightly.

"And that's how your story will end."

"…Kiriyuu?"

She looked up, startled by the new voice.

It was the Vongola. They were at the stairs, just a few feet from her. It was only Tsuna, Reborn, Gokudera and Bianchi, all blinking blankly at her. She was looking dishevelled and weary, panting slightly. M turned back to Kiriyuu's unconscious form.

Gone.

"Kiriyuu, what are you doing?" Tsuna asked. When she laughed, Tsuna suddenly felt attacked by a plague of concern. "...Kiriyuu?"

"You're late." She said, a crooked smile playing on her lips.

"Huh?" Gokudera lifted an eyebrow.

She shook her head. "Never mind." She stopped snickering silently to herself.

They realised she was staring at a helmet in the shape of a skull, with the horns protruding out from each side that was sitting on the floor. A bit intimidating, really. Gokudera cocked his head at her, while Bianchi breathed a sigh of relief and walked up to Kiriyuu who had lifted the helmet from the ground and it on. However, Tsuna was actually feeling not-so-relieved now. In fact, he was experiencing some kind… bizarre sense of _wariness_ towards the girl.

Yet she smiled at them cheerfully and awkwardly despite this morbid situation and stopped shortly in front of them. And he almost yelled, _"Don't go near her!" _But…

"Welcome back, Kiriyuu." Reborn greeted her warmly, as if the girl hadn't even left Namimori at all.

"Nice to see you again, Reborn." Kiriyuu began grovelling at his feet again; Tsuna cringed, and he lifted her up, patting her arm reassuringly. No need to grovel anymore.

"Kiriyuu-chan, I'm so glad you're okay." Bianchi said, as Kiriyuu leapt into a hug in the older woman's arms.

"What are you doing here?"

She paused, "I'm looking for Hibari."

"You still haven't found him?"

She nodded bitterly.

"Why are you wearing their uniform?" Gokudera grunted at her, jabbing a finger at her green attire. Very suspicious.

She blinked, fingering the hem of her skirt. "Um, they made us all wear Kokuyo uniforms. Did you guys manage to find any way up? Most of the stairs have been destroyed!" She exclaimed furiously. "That Mukuro Rokudo – he makes my blood boil!"

"What happened to your hair? And what happened to the scar Hibari gave you? Where did it go?" Gokudera pressed on diligently.

There was a deathly silence. Then – "Make-up." She merely said.

Tsuna shook his head at Gokudera, who just gestured back that it had been an innocent question (it was, to be honest). Bianchi and Reborn just gawked at Kiriyuu. "U-Uh, Kiriyuu, your cousin Elia… is here." Tsuna quickly blurted out.

Pause.

"…. Elia?" Kiriyuu looked back up, blinked at them all blankly. "She's… _here_?"

Tsuna felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Y-Yeah, she told us to tell you that… she's sorry."

There was another silence.

"Oh."

Everyone waited.

Kiriyuu glanced to the side and back. "I don't know what she's sorry for." She said, in a dull, flat, low tone.

"S-She was hurt by the guy with yo-yo's… are you – "

" – I'm certain that Rokudo Mukuro is upstairs." She interrupted suddenly.

Tsuna, along with Bianchi, Gokudera and Reborn exchanged awkward glances. _Wait, what's going on? Okay, Elia said that Kiriyuu was held hostage by Mukuro and she also said that Mukuro somehow made her wound Kiriyuu in the shoulder by accident. When Elia got hurt, the last thing she said was to tell Kiriyuu that she was sorry for what she did to her. When I found Kiriyuu back in the forest before I found Elia…. She had already escaped Mukuro's clutches. So, I suppose Elia is a bit slow with the news, right? This must be what happens when communication is poor._

It seemed everyone was thinking the same, too.

_No, that's not right. Kiriyuu came in the same way Elia did. How could she not have seen Elia? No, that's right either – Elia must be a comrade of Mukuro's and she's trying to make us suspicious of our allies! Of course! They've attacked us directly one by one, the next thing they'll do is get to our minds too and make us to distrust one another and end up attacking each other! _

Tsuna frowned.

_Well, Rokudo Mukuro's not going to break our teamwork spirit that easily!! _"Kiriyuu." Tsuna back perked up. "What happened to your friend from before -- that boy with the funny pineapple hair…"

"Oh, he's… somewhere… safe." She smiled.

"Did you find Hibari-san?"

She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but then she slowly shook her head, and her lip wobbled. "No…" She squeaked. "I haven't been able to find him _at all_."

"What about Fuuta?"

Kiriyuu blinked at him. "…._Fuuta?_" Her eyes narrowed considerably in confusion. "What about Fuuta?"

Tsuna nodded, "Yeah, he is also Mukuro's hostage. You never saw him?"

Kiriyuu remained deathly silent. Then she stammered, spluttering on the spot, but she gathered herself together and swallowed a lump in her throat – "I… I didn't realise." She croaked out, "I'm…I'm sorry, I should've been more alert. I didn't know. I never saw Fuuta my time here at all."

"Poor Kiriyuu-chan." Bianchi patted her shoulder gently. "What are you doing there anyway?"

There was no response from Kiriyuu. She was staring solemnly at the ground mutely, as if she was in deep thought.

Gokudera interrupted, "… Where were you at the time of the attacks? And why did you leave Namimori?" He demanded, a little on the cautious side as he stepped closer to her. Kiriyuu blinked at him. "What happened to your eye? Why is it _**red**_?" Gokudera added, still eyeing her cautiously.

Everyone turned to Kiriyuu. "…My…. Eye?"

Indeed, it was red. Well, the left one was, the right was still green. The left eye still had a greenish-tinge in the iris, but most of it was dominated by hues of blood red. In response, Kiriyuu blinked dumbly again, but then her eyebrows knotted fiercely. "_What?_"

Tsuna observed her from the side. _What's wrong with Kiriyuu? Why is she so… unfocused?_

"Hayato, now's not the time…" Bianchi reprimanded him disapprovingly, tilting her protective goggles up over her eyes. "We have more important at hands, like defeating Mukuro. Just be glad that Kiriyuu-chan is safe and sound with us."

"It's okay. I already told Tsuna this – I'll tell you guys too - My cousin Elia's been taken hostage by Mukuro Rokudo." Kiriyuu then squeaked out, shrinking under Gokudera stony gaze somewhat.

Tsuna let out a small, relieved smile. _Phew, she's still scared of Gokudera… yes, that's right. That's Kiriyuu alright._

Reborn nodded and clapped his tiny hands to gather everyone's attention, "Okay, now that everyone is here – and Kiriyuu is safe - we should continue with our pursuit of Mukuro."

Everyone nodded in response, and continued scouting the floor – this time, back with Kiriyuu in their team. "Over there!"

An emergency ladder stood by its lonesome, affixed to the wall by rusted nails – and everyone stared at it beadily. It probably led to Mukuro's lair, and Tsuna swallowed, while Kiriyuu coughed into her fist. "That must be it. Okay, let's get going."

As soon as they stepped forward, however, a noise quickly flashed through the distil atmosphere, like weird zipping, flitting sound, and the string of a yo-yo entered their view and flipped back to its owner – the quiet, glasses guy.

"It's him!"

Gokudera was the first to act – a tussle of bombs flew up into the air and immediately created a smokescreen. "Juudaime, I'll deal with this guy! You guys go on ahead and deal with Mukuro!"

"Gokudera-kun…" Tsuna said, but now didn't seem to be the time for any hesitations – Bianchi, Reborn and Tsuna quickly scrambled up the ladder, but Kiriyuu stopped halfway and swerved her head back to Gokudera's direction as he engaged combat with the glasses guy.

She watched silently, he eyes narrowing. _The Forbidden bullet..._

" – Kiriyuu, what are you doing? It's not safe here, we have to go now!" Bianchi was trying to pull her along.

Instead, Kiriyuu turned back to Tsuna. "...I'm going to help Goku-san, Tsuna."

"Wait!!" Tsuna shrieked, "No, you can't – we just found you and I can't – Huh…?" It was Reborn who stopped him in mid-sentence. Tsuna snapped his head back up to his tutor. "R-Reborn?"

The infant shook his head. Kiriyuu, without another word, slid back down the ladder. Tsuna watched her rush through a fierce barricade of explosions and yo-yo with deadly spikes of doom, and shortly re-appear beside Gokudera.

He blinked at her, somewhat stunned as she pulled out a foldable trident blade from a black leather holster attached to her thigh, just under her skirt. She attached it firmly in place and held it up, pointing it at glasses guy.

Gokudera watched Tsuna, Reborn and Bianchi disappear up the ladder and then turned to Kiriyuu. He grinned in anticipation. "Tch, Kirby-san, you finally showing what moves you got?"

There was no reply. But then –

He nudged her roughly. "Hey, you okay, Kiriyuu?" This would be the first time he'd used her name to address her.

She turned to him. Her left eye suddenly began to burn a deep red intensely, and lines began to appear over the side of her face, like little cracks on broken glass. She smiled. The low, suave voice that eluded out of Kiriyuu's mouth didn't sound like Kiriyuu at all.

"First of all… My name is M, and anyone foolish enough to stand in my way… will _**die**_."

* * *

Oh, the insanity of it all. I hope this chapter didn't put you off. PS. This is NOT a horror story. Well, maybe some parts can be, but it's not really. Hibari will be in the next chapter! I repeat, **Hibari is in the next chapter**!!!

**Please read:**

I will care to explain what has happened in this chapter if you are confused – M didn't actually 'kill' off the 'Kiriyuu personality'; it was just a much more aggressive way of 'taking over' Kiriyuu, compared to last time. This also 'deals' with the whole 'hitman' theme the whole story and manga revolves around (but I kinda warped it).

There was meant to be a chapter squashed in between Chapter 40, just after M knocks Kiriyuu out and takes over, and before Kiriyuu wakes up and goes to find Mukuro only to start having her suspicions about M. Anyway, this particular chapter was called '**M for Murder**' (Chapter 40 became 'M for Metamorphosis' instead). Judging by the title, I think you may have a distinct idea of what happens in that particular chapter and you can sort of see what happened in this chapter was slightly identical to what happens in M for Murder. The reason why it wasn't posted up was because I thought it would be too violent, disturbing and creepy for this story (though this chapter was a bit violent, disturbing and creepy).


	43. A Stab in the Back

Ahh, thank you for the reviews :) Yeah, I think this story's rating might have to go up (but it's just been these past few chapters which are a bit M-rated for violence and dark themes).

PS. Kiriyuu goes somewhat Mary-Sue in this chapter.

**Chapter 43**

_A Stab in the Back_

Once Tsuna, Bianchi and Reborn had arrived at a large room that was supposed to be Kokuyo's cinema (though it seemed to be far too derelict to called a cinema now. It didn't really look like one, to be honest); Tsuna was stunned to see Kiriyuu's friend from before - the guy with the weird eye and strange, somewhat unfriendly demeanour which became coherent when Kiriyuu instantly left the two of them, and the fact that Reborn was with Tsuna suddenly came up in their conversation - sitting languidly on a dilapidated couch a distance from them up on stage.

"It's you!(?)" Tsuna squawked in disbelief, "I-Is this where you're being held? Ah, I met this person in the forest earlier with Kiriyuu. He's a Kokuyo student and a hostage – " He quickly explained to Reborn and Bianchi.

_Wait, that's also not right. Kiriyuu said she escorted him back somewhere… safe. Being back here in Kokuyo where Mukuro is still at large isn't…. safe._

"Please come forward slowly. I would like to take some time to get you know better," The Kokuyo student began, "….Tenth boss of the Vongola."

Tsuna blinked. "Eh? How did you…"

Bianchi's eyes immediately narrowed behind her goggles. "Careful, Tsuna, he's - !"

The Kokuyo student's smile widened thoroughly. "That's right." He said as he leant forward in his seat, "_I'm the real Rokudo Mukuro_."

Tsuna's eyes broadened thoroughly. "_WHAT?!_" He shook his head to clear jumbled thoughts that did not make sense at the moment – but all he knew was that they had to get out of here now!!!

- And that was when the door slammed shut behind them, courtesy of Fuuta.

…………….

Gokudera could actually… believe it.

Kiriyuu – M, whatever - was really going against the Vongola and attacking him with a trident… a giant version of a fork, he thought. Not too lethal, right? Besides, Kiriyuu was a pushover, he knew. What the hell could she do? He'd seen what she was like. She was clumsy, dumb and didn't know her right foot from her left. Well, it wasn't that unpredictable that she would somehow end up going against them. He never really liked the girl anyway, and he had always been suspicious of her and her far too easy-going nature (he'd never be suspicious of Yamamoto…. Or should he, hmmm?). And this just further confirmed his suspicions. No, they validated them, actually.

But what was strange was that that stupid red eye of hers was glowing ferociously, demonically, and the skin of her scar was beginning to show its ugliness back, bubbling under her cheek and practically tearing its way apart back like veiny hooks to the surface of her face where it rightfully belonged as she continued to pursue him with this mad, hysterical grin on her face – despite her early previous statement that she had applied make-up on even though it did not look like she had because she was still as ashen and pale-faced like before.

"Double Bomb!" Gokudera yelled, trying to get some distance between them by throwing the explosives towards Chikusa and Kiriyuu. He grabbed her arm and they dodged, making sure Kiriyuu wouldn't get hurt (Mukuro-sama's previous orders, otherwise he'd probably let her take the brunt of the attack), and he used his yo-yo's to split the remaining bombs in half before they could reach her.

"Looks like you remembered our previous encounter quite well. Or maybe because I threw them towards the direction of your little girlfriend. Very quick response there." Gokudera said, smirking. "Thanks to that, you were unaware of your own feet."

Chikusa hesitated, realising that his standing ground were completely covered with more explosives.

"My weapons are most effective where there are obstacles."

Kiriyuu was glancing at his feet. He looked down also; he was left standing in a cloud of dust as the explosives went off, completely covering the battle area with smoke and debris; he had pushed Kiriyuu away from him again. She coughed, straining her eyes open. When the dust cleared away; he was still standing, and Kiriyuu breathed an inward sigh of relief. However, she gritted her teeth as she turned her attention to Gokudera.

He merely grinned back at her. "You're going to pay for betraying Juudaime – after all that time he was so nice to you. He trusted you. We all trusted you."

"….." She glowered silently - and she rushed forward towards him with the trident.

"Triple Bomb!" He yelled, but she bent her trident in half from where the blade met the handle – and she suddenly threw the trident –

Gokudera watched as the trident imitated the role of a small boomerang and swivelled in a sharp angle across his bombs, effectively repelling them. He growled with gritted teeth as the trident whirled back to Kiriyuu's hand and she swiped at him as the trident came flat in a vertical shape again. He ducked, and suddenly, he stumbled, coughing and choking.

"Crap… at a time like this…" Gokudera grumbled, clutching at his chest as the pain swelled. He looked up; Kiriyuu had stopped in her tracks – her behaviour had really been odd...

" – Which gives me a chance to do this!" Suddenly, the glass behind Gokudera broke, and Ken stabbed his talons into Gokudera's chest, more blood seeping out.

"Are you alright?" Chikusa asked Ken, now at Kiriyuu's side, as Ken jumped through the window, grinning.

"Yeah, 'cept I thought I was gunna die." Ken glanced at Kiriyuu and he frowned somewhat, "What's wrong with you? If you hesitated any longer, then you'd missed your chance to kill him."

There was no response from Kiriyuu.

"What's wrong with you, pyon?" Ken snorted at her. He turned to Chikusa, "Seriously, what's her problem?"

"….." Chikusa ripped a strip of fabric from his sleeve and handed it to her.

No response.

"Geez, your scar's popping out again, Kiwi."

That snapped Kiriyuu out of her stupor, and she lifted a hand, and touched her cheek – the scar was indeed, back on her face, and was dripping freshly with blood mingled with yellowing fluid from fresh wounds because it wasn't properly healed. Illusions don't 'heal', they _hide_. She didn't even realise. _The illusion disappeared because you lost self-control._

"Hey, look, he's still alive!" Ken suddenly exclaimed, and they both craned their heads over. Ken grinned, his tongue waggling out again. "Kyahahaha, how pathetic you look!" He taunted at Gokudera who was wobbling on the spot.

"… Idiot." Chikusa added, as Kiriyuu blinked slowly.

"Feh." Gokudera croaked out at them, as he stumbled back, then accidentally falling through an opening and tumbling down the stairs.

"Gyahaha! He fell down the stairs! Let's get him, Kakipii – "

Meanwhile, Kiriyuu stood by herself as Ken and Chikusa began to make their way down the stairs.

Her scar had returned.

_I died._

She looked to the side.

_No. I'm still here._

She looked at her hands. They were covered in blood from her newly-revealed scar.

_M never killed me._

_She almost did, though._

_She took over. But the experience was much more terrifying._

Kiriyuu suddenly flinched with pain.

_I've been here the whole time._

The faint pain in her shoulder, and her leg, was even starting to make its presence known, along with her burning cheek, the pain thumping dully like her heartbeat. Her blazer darkened red immediately, at the shoulder and her wounded leg, and blood began to leak down her arm, dripping from her fingertips onto the floor. That wound hadn't healed properly either.

She was back to square one, the day she'd met Mukuro, still with a healing cheek but with a fresh bullet wound, too.

She hadn't gotten better at all. Her head throbbed; her mind closing in as the walls of the building suddenly seemed to have stretched up and up around her, and Ken's laughter was doubling in volume and she wanted him to stop that because it was annoying and she suddenly she didn't even know why she was really here and what was really going on and why this was really happening to her and she could hear more laughter and Gokudera's sharp inhales of shaky breath that rang through the atmosphere, mingled with Ken's laughter, began to grow louder too and –

She lifted her hands up to clamp over the sides of her head as the horrible noise suddenly screamed through. She gritted her teeth and clenched her eyes shut. She didn't know what she was doing.

And then –

Kiriyuu could somewhat remember bits and pieces of the gaps in her life – obviously the gaps was when M had taken over.

She went with Ken to attack her friends in the trees. She untied Ken and set him loose – that's why she thought her hands were raw and stinging; they were rope burns. Then, she went back to Kokuyo, and she went with Mukuro, and spoke to Tsuna. She told him she was a hostage. Then she said she was going back to save Hibari when she really wasn't. M must have known that she had lured Hibari here successfully. Then M vanished somewhere and allowed Kiriyuu to take over.

She asked Mukuro about M.

M wasn't Mukuro's illusion.

_There is no-one here named Tsuzuru M._

Mukuro didn't create M.

_I did._

A bird flew in; he recognized it from that freak who got nosebleeds seeing people's faces when they were scared – Birds, was it? The bird stopped hovering above Gokudera and nestled into a hole in the wall behind him as he lay on the ground, thinking how useless he was – first, okay – he admitted it – he really didn't suspect Ottuso Kiriyuu to be part of Rokudo Mukuro's clan after all, second, he had already probably lost this battle against his two… no, three lackeys. The bird began to sing – the Namimori national anthem. Gokudera blinked, and then chuckled, before tossing a lit piece of dynamite behind him. Ken and Chikusa were now at the stairs, ready to finish Gokudera off; Kiriyuu was still standing, leaning against the wall for support with her hands over her head as if she suffering some kind of inner turmoil. The wall eventually gave away, crumbling behind Gokudera.

"Kyahaha, what kind of aim is that?"

"Hehe… the only guy who'd love our school's stupid anthem…" Gokudera began. "Has to be you, right…?"

Behind Gokudera, a lone, solitary figure sat, crouching and hidden amongst the rubble, his head lowered in his arms, his predatory eyes now gazing and searching through the intense daylight. Hibari moved up slowly, stood up wobbly from his spot on the ground, and took a minor step forward.

"What? This guy?"

"Namimori Junior High's Head Prefect…" Chikusa added. "Hibari Kyouya."

Kiriyuu removed her hands slowly from her head. _Hibari was here._ When she looked back up, Kiriyuu realised something. She realised that she would never get what she wanted if it continued this way – she glanced from Chikusa to Ken, then to Gokudera, and Hibari – put two and two things together. Gokudera was probably too weak to fight now. Hibari also looked terribly injured himself though his face never displayed any signs of pain or agony.

She smiled. And she grinned. Then she smirked.

She ran forward immediately. "Hibari!! Help me!" She screamed from the top of the stairs, and Chikusa and Ken turned to her instantly. "Help! I-I don't know what I'm doing! I'm being controlled by M – "

It was Ken who ripped her away from trying to get to Hibari who was now watching the scene, and he shoved her back. "What the hell?! You lying, filthy traitor. How dare you go against Mukuro-sama!" He growled fiercely low in his throat, and he lifted up his hand, which was starting to transform slowly into a talon with sharp claws as he inserted a random cartridge in. "I knew I should've reported you to Mukuro ever since – "

"No, Hibari! Don't listen to him!" Kiriyuu shrieked at him helplessly, as Ken begin to advance towards her.

Ken growled at her, "I should've known you also wouldn't betray your friends in the end, pyon."

"Ken – " Chikusa began, as he watched Ken shove the girl with so much force that she practically went stumbling to the other side of the room, away from the staircase. The trident dropped out of her hand, clattered a distant away. "Mukuro's orders; you can't hurt her."

"_What?!_" Ken shrieked out, then – "F-Fine, we'll capture her and take her back to Mukuro. Interrogate her about that spy she has contact with!"

"…Spy?" Kiriyuu mumbled out quietly, as she gathered herself slowly up from the ground.

Ken and Chikusa watched her warily.

She was swaying slightly with her head down; her hair fell over her face, and then, a throaty, deep chuckle emitted from the back of her throat. "Oh…you mean M…. You've never seen her… only heard her voice... _Did it sound an awful lot like this_?"

There was a brief silence. "She's crazy, pyon." Ken then muttered at the significant change in her voice. "She's crazy." The horrified expression on both their faces made her laugh.

"Kiriyuu's been calling me M." She continued, in that voice they'd heard, "You can call me whatever you like - Now tell me. _WHERE IS THE FORBIDDEN BULLET?!_" She demanded furiously, and Ken and Chikusa gawped in stunned silence.

"How did you – "

"Hm. Those looks on your faces… I suppose without a doubt that you have absolutely no idea where the bullet is." Without another word, M dived for her trident but Ken was faster; he swiped at her fiercely, and she went flying further again to the side, further away from the trident. A little amount of blood seeped out from the corner of her mouth as she got back up. She looked down at Hibari; he hadn't heard anything at all from that distance. She grinned.

"…Please don't hurt me." She made her way back to the landing, where Hibari could see. "Please…don't!!!"

Hibari saw. He saw Kiriyuu bleeding and hurt. He saw those two bastards advance towards her. Something snapped.

Chikusa was now trying to pry Ken away from the girl as he eyed her warily, as she glared back at them venomously, "Stop it, Ken – she's baiting you - "

"It's too late for that now, Chikusa!" Ken yelled, and then he turned to her, who was still on the ground – but she was smirking. "What the hell are you grinning about?" He snarled at her viciously.

"Look behind you."

Ken and Chikusa whipped back round, where Hibari was slowly making his way up towards them. Ken and Chikusa threw each other looks. "… I'll settle this guy," Ken eventually said, with a growing grin as she looked from Hibari to Ken, and finally to Chikusa.

"… I knew you'd say that." He replied, and he promptly grabbed her by the arm and seized her back up onto her feet, keeping her 'hostage' behind him.

"Lion channel!" Ken yelled, as he inserted a cartridge into his mouth, and Hibari raised an eyebrow. Ken rushed towards Hibari – but he was taken care of pretty quickly despite Hibari's severe physical condition; he was even sent sailing out of the window, she heard the 'thud' of Ken's body and squeezed her eyes shut tight, hands clamped over her head.

"Hibari, help me! I'm so sorry, I-I don't what I'm doing! It wasn't me! I didn't mean to hurt Gokudera!" She screamed out desperately.

Hibari turned round to face Chikusa; who was now trying to back her away from Hibari. He was now approaching them both slowly. "You." He said, his tone going dangerously low as he felt his eye beginning to twitch – Chikusa's hand was on her _**waist**_. "Get your _filthy _hands off her."

That was directed to Chikusa, whose expression had severely darkened. As if seeing Ken fly out of a window thanks to this tonfa-wielding psycho was any help in withering away Chikusa's usual calmness towards any scenario.

"You're next." Hibari began slowly, "…I'll bite you to _death_."

……………

"Fuuta!" Tsuna exclaimed thoroughly as the boy walked forward to them slowly. "You s-scared me."

"He seems alright…" Bianchi muttered as Tsuna stepped forward to Fuuta as well.

"I searched for you after we met earlier. Where did you go???" Tsuna demanded worriedly.

Bianchi stepped up to him, "It's dangerous here, Fuu – "

Suddenly, what seemed to last only a few, short milliseconds became minutes and perhaps more as Fuuta's hand lashed out with a trident, stabbing Bianchi completely in the stomach. Tsuna's jaw dropped, as Reborn stared. Bianchi coughed up some blood immediately as Fuuta wrenched the trident out.

"Bianchi!!!" Tsuna shrieked in horror.

Mukuro's smirk merely broadened in response.

"Fuuta, what are you doing?!" He was answered with a swipe of the trident by Fuuta as the little boy crept closer to Tsuna. "WAAAH!! O-Okay, what's wrong with you? P-Put that thing down! I-It's dangerous!"

No response.

Tsuna thought this was virtually impossible. What the hell was going on?! Things just seemed to get worse and worse!!

"His mind is being controlled." Reborn quickly said, just as Tsuna turned back around and began to step away from Fuuta.

"No…No way! Fuuta! No!"

"… Kufufu…" Mukuro watched as the scene rolled on, with Tsuna flailing around helplessly. Amusement danced in his eyes. "… Little Fuuta-kun's not the only one, you know."

………………..

She lay slumped on the foor. Cheered for Hibari from the sidelines, watching.

Chikusa couldn't fend off Hibari's relentless attack. Who knew this half-dead guy had still retained so much strength within him? He knew that Kiriyuu would now be a spectator of the fight instead of helping as she did previously. But he hadn't time to think about that, Hibari was going to perform the last strike with his tonfa, and Chikusa felt the impact. He was almost knocked out cold when Hibari was going to deliver the finishing blow -

But then Hibari immediately turned around, just before the needle-tip of a trident could go slicing into his arm. It had been aiming for his chest but he prevented the full assault. He gripped the thin tip, the flat of his palm slashed clean with fresh blood dripping down. He looked up at the assailant; Glasses guy was unconscious now. Hairy-dog boy had been disposed out of the window. He didn't account the chain smoker to attack him. And there was nobody else here, but -

_Kiriyuu._

What's worse was that it was an attack from behind.

Her left eye was glowing a bright red now, her other eye was still dulled and green, somewhat glazed. He hadn't been expecting this at all. The trident in Kiriyuu's hand had now penetrated Hibari in his right arm, slightly into his flesh, held back by his hand just in time. A smile crept over her face like an open slit, and then with much force than before - she drove the trident further into his arm without wincing as a loud 'squishing' noise of compressed flesh screamed out amidst the eerie silence. She… She -

… She had _betrayed_ him.

Kiriyuu didn't even seem to realise she was also bleeding heavily herself for no apparent reason. He watched the trail of blood stain her entire left arm sleeve, and a dark, blackish-red puddle appear on her thigh. When she pried the trident blade out of him and out of his hand, Hibari stumbled backwards as he turned to face her, but was careful not enough to collapse on one knee before her. Hell no, he thought, as she stood silently in front of him, the trident dripping clean with_ his_ blood.

Damn it, _**how **_could he let this happen?!?

But then -

"I'm sorry, Hibari! I swear it's M, not me!!" She cried as she stood in front of him, suddenly reduced to a quivering wreck, as she clenched her eyes shut and re-opening them. "I-I don't know what's happening to me! I'm being controlled - "

Hot tears were oozing out from the corner of her eyes. Kiriyuu was hysterical. Mumbled gibberish spilled from her mouth, her eyes went wide, darting to back and forth shakily. She was breathing irregularly and her lips were constantly parting into a smirk, then dropped into a frown. Another smirk. Frown again. She couldn't stop muttering incoherently to herself. Then abrupt peals of insane laughter ripped from her lips, echoing around the empty corridor.

The situation looked bad. He couldn't tell if she was faking – it certainly didn't seem forged. He told her to calm down first. She didn't even hear him. Obviously there was something wrong.

Suddenly, she turned back to him, her face aghast. Then she shook her head at him. "Oh god, I don't know what's going on – I can't – Oh my god! Look what I did to you… you – Are you okay?" Suddenly, Kiriyuu pushed herself further away from him, almost tripping over her own feet; she wouldn't look at him, but the expression on her face ultimately gave it away. "Stop it!! I won't let you do this to Hibari -- !" She screamed to no-one, ashen-faced. Then Kiriyuu was muttering to herself again. More undecipherable gibberish.

Hibari stormed up to her and seized her by the shoulders even though it hurt his wounded arm. "Who are you talking to?"

Kiriyuu leapt. She looked up at him shakily. "W-What?"

"I said, '_who are you talking to'_."

She looked at him with tears in her eyes. Then she shook her head meekly. "I-I can't..."

Hibari frowned. His arms never left her side, and instead, tightened the grip. He grumbled at her, deciding that this situation would only get worse and worse: "Who is she?"

"Who?"

"Don't play dumb. Who is she?"

Kiriyuu still looked reluctant. Then - "No!" She yelped at him, "Go away, Hibari! I don't want you to see me like this! Look-Look what I've become!" She screamed, thoroughly ashamed at herself, with her hands clamped over her ears, fistfuls of hair interlinked in her fingers. "Look at me!! I did all of this to myself!!"

He tried to calm her down first. "Who is this…" He paused briefly, "...M." Oh yeah, that was what Kiriyuu called it.

"M." Kiriyuu paused. "She's... She's... here. She just is. That's who she is."

He asked, "Where is she?"

Kiriyuu blinked at him in astonishment, then slowly, she raised her hand. She pointed. Hibari glanced over. It was an empty space. "She's over there." Then she was suddenly speaking in a different voice. The Other's voice. "_You're going back on what we've agreed on!_" Back to Kiriyuu's voice. She was shaking her head and wailing. "I never agreed to anything! I don't want the goddamn Forbidden bullet!! You even tried to kill me! Hibari, help! Stop it! Stop her from killing! She's going to try and kill everyone here!! STOP HER!!"

Hibari watched in silence as Kiriyuu role-played two characters herself right in front of him.

The Other's voice. Kiriyuu frowned, glared and gritted her teeth and then smirked. "I knew it. Fine, if he is such a distraction to you, I'll kill him. I'll skin him, I'll dice him up, and you can watch, Kiriyuu – " Back to crying again. "Hibari, she's going to kill you! Get away from - "

Suddenly, Kiriyuu went limp in his arms, slumped against him completely.

He honestly didn't know if she was faking it. It… didn't feel forged. And he knew that Kiriyuu wouldn't use these kinds of gimmicks to lie to people for whatever reason she had. "Kiriyuu." He shook her slightly. Nothing. He shook her again, this time with much more force that her head lolled back. "Kiriyuu?"

A deep chuckle erupted from the back of her throat, as she drew her head back up, grinned at him. _The Other_. "You really thought I was going to leapt into your arms for 'saving' me?" Kiriyuu's entire complexion was suddenly dark, as black shadows hung an unnatural hue over the glowing red eye while the green eye remained stagnant and dull, devoid of a soul and a will; they reminded him vaguely of that Rokudo Mukuro....

She continued to speak through this new voice, though it sounded rather alienated, and flat, almost monotone. _Possessed_. "My godfather is a professional hitman who utilises knives and swords; you honestly thought I wouldn't know how to handle a mere weapon like this?"

There was a brief pause.

".... Or is it the fact that I have stabbed you in the arm... or to be more precise, your extensor carpi ulnaris...?" She finished, with a widening sneer.

Hibari almost froze, as he began to feel an incredible severe pain run through his arm, particularly at his wrist, and his fingers that were gripped around the nook of his tonfa – almost twitched and let go involuntarily. He frowned as he turned back to her. She smirked delightfully at him, as she twirled the trident blade around in her hand in hypnotising circles – clockwise, anticlockwise, clockwise once again.

"You're still being controlled." He said, as he winced somewhat.

"... It hurts, doesn't it?" She crooned out instead, in a surprisingly gentle, soft manner, though a grin began to appear like another slash-wound across her face. "Your ulnar artery should be punctured by now."

"What did you do?" He demanded, his lips curling into a ferocious snarl. What was going on with Kiriyuu? It was like... she was taken over by a completely different person.

"... It's pretty simple, really." This different person replied, looking at the trident and running a finger over his blood on the blade, "You see, I am from the Giglio Nero's sniper rank; therefore it makes perfect sense that I am trained to know all the muscles, nerves and parts of a human body to perform any task given, whether I am to disarm or disable an enemy or to perform a precise, long-range kill... After all, accuracy is not the only important thing a sniper should excel at. You have to thoroughly know your _human anatomy_ as well."

Hibari intook this all without batting an eyelid; he didn't exactly account her to spew forth some kind of literature he wasn't interested in. In fact, he didn't give a damn anymore if she was being controlled. He just knew one thing -

"... I hate your kind." He merely growled at her low in the throat. Whether or not Kiriyuu was faking it - Damn her, he thought, damn this fickle, devious, scheming bitch.

Her voice merged into a fit of laughter, "By crippling your dominant arm, I'm going to get you in the areas which hurt you the most... instead of letting you die quickly and painlessly." She added, sliding the trident upwards slowly just centimetres in front of her face: the thin blade effectively splitting her face in 'half' - One side with the scar and the demonic red eye – the other with the green eye, no scar. "So, do you have any last words before I kill you?"

He responded with a snide tug of the corner of his upper lip. "Looks like I didn't underestimate you after all." He began slowly, as he straightened himself, and glared at her straight in the eye still with a broadening smirk gracing his features.

She pursed her lips at him sourly, her eyes narrowing.

"So… You are the accomplice of Mukuro Rokudo." He said calmly. This was confusing. This…This girl and the vibe she was giving him… it didn't 'feel' like Kiriyuu at all. No, Kiriyuu was nothing like this girl before him. He then remembered back to what Mukuro said to him once more; he said that she had also decided to disassociate herself with Hibari. That didn't mean she would cast aside her entire personality and replace it with a different one, however.

"…. Yes and no." She replied curtly, twirling the trident around.

Even her voice had changed. Usually her voice was perky and annoying, now it was now the smooth, sultry tone that held a deep lilt at the edge, teasing and playful, yet dark. "You let them get hurt." He was gesturing to Ken and Chikusa who were lying face down back outside.

She watched him darkly. "…I'm looking for something." She smiled wryly back at him as she held her arms out in a playful shrug, "I also wanted to get to you - and Chikusa and Ken would merely hinder me. At first, I let them get rid of Gokudera…. then when I realised you had been here the whole time, I knew I had to get rid of them so I can have the opportunity to destroy you myself."

Hibari suddenly smirked. "And what will Mukuro Rokudo say when he realises that you let his comrades get hurt?"

"…. He won't say anything." She replied, with another crude smirk. He raised an eyebrow in response, and she continued, "Because I didn't do anything to 'hurt' them. YOU did the physical work. YOU threw them out of the window, not me."

Hibari frowned.

"So the one I should thank… Is _**you**_ for doing my work for _**me**_."

"Your dirty work." He spat at her as his eyes narrowed thoroughly.

He worked it out mentally; she wanted something from Mukuro's two lackeys - Chikusa and Ken, and Gokudera would only get in her way so she waited for Chikusa and Ken to get rid of him and acted as if she was on their side, but then her plan changed when Hibari was discovered back downstairs in that wall-blocked cell. Instead, she then focused all her attention to Hibari, and used him to get rid of Chikusa and Ken once Gokudera had been disposed of, just to get to Hibari one-on-one.

Her smirk widened considerably.

"You sly, conniving fox…" He muttered with a growing smirk gracing his rugged features, watching her position herself properly into a stance; she had moved her arms and spaced her feet out evenly for balance yet adding a sense of composure. Definitely no amateur. He gripped his tonfas tightly in response, his smirk widening further. "... I'm going to really enjoy biting you to _death_."

* * *

...Now how many times have I ended a chapter with THAT? xD


	44. Hibari Kyouya vs Ottuso Kiriyuu

This is a chapter I've been waiting for agessss. **WARNING: Here comes Super Kiriyuu-Mary-Sueeee!! Hibari goes Super OOC!! **-sobs quietly to myself-

I've splashed in some extreme Kiriyuu x Hibari to make up for the lack of romance for the past… 10 chapters or something.

**Chapter 44**

_Hibari Kyouya vs. Ottuso Kiriyuu_

So what did he understand about this current situation? Nothing much. What Mukuro said to him before had inevitably come true – he didn't seem to recognise this girl opposite him. It was meant to be Kiriyuu, but also sort of… wasn't. Hibari could tell. He'd been around her for so long he could recognise the difference immediately. 'Kiriyuu' eyed him with a vulture stare from across the room. Then her lips pulled back into a wide smirk. Hibari frowned; she looked awfully pale and sickly despite the dark demeanour she possessed – he also finally realised she really was the one who led him to Kokuyo.

Everyone is supposed to have an 'evil' double. An alternate. A doppelganger. Maybe on the other side of the earth, living a parallel life to yours. And maybe someday you'll see your twin one day. Only she, or he, is evil (or not, if you're lucky, or, if you're the evil one). He chose not to continue to think down that lane - Simply because he didn't believe it. This was all a load of bull. Maybe Kiriyuu really was faking, and he was going to pry the truth out of her. He was going to pry all the details out of her still-warm but half-dead carcass once he was through with her. That would be punishment for going against him.

Her hair was indeed black, which only made her even more ghostly white than usual; she was dressed in the Kokuyo uniform –which he was ready to shred in a matter of moments - the side of her left face was covered in these weird lines, he didn't know if it was some kind of weird face paint or if her face was cracking like broken glass; ready to reveal some kind of ugly monster underneath. He had nothing against Kokuyo, but since Kiriyuu was a former Namimori student…. He felt further betrayed by her actions – and not just because she was wearing their uniform. She watched him back silently, her eyes glazed, and half-lidded, one a different colour from the other, a mindless, blank look playing on her features. Since when did she have heterochromia? He was pretty sure that both of her eyes were green, but….

This felt strange, and it wasn't because that Mukuro bastard had perhaps broken every bone of his body due to that previous fight.

Whatever entity was possessing Kiriyuu, frowned back at him.

He didn't even seem to have time to blink; Kiriyuu's face was just inches from him as she rushed at him in full momentum in a matter of seconds, and grabbed his wrist that was holding a tonfa before slamming her other clenched fist onto the length of his arm to completely shatter the bone – Hibari still did not let go of the tonfa, however and swung the other in his other hand towards her; she blocked it with something small and metal (along with her other trident) pulled out from a leather sheath that was strapped around her thigh, hidden under her skirt, which then hung poised and above her head, rushed forward - he dodged – as expected, but the mystery blade bounced off the hilt of his tonfas and slipped to the side.

She had been close.

She doubled back quickly towards him, and stabbed forwards with the blade in a quick swipe horizontally, almost slitting his throat if he hadn't used his tonfa and sent the other ramming towards the direction of her head – she prevented the attack by using her forearm. He heard a sickening 'crack'. The impact and strength he inflicted onto his tonfa probably had sent a crack in her bone as it connected with her arm.

This time; they were much closer to each other than before. His breath tickled her ear, his hair brushing against the side of her cheek as their noses almost touched. "… Looks like I misjudged you; but you're still _weak_."

Kiriyuu gritted her teeth as he applied further pressure onto his tonfa, as the other tonfa wrestled with her mystery weapon – which was revealed to be another trident – so now she had **two tridents** – one of the thin, needle-like blade was dripping with some blood. He wouldn't even bother to use any hidden hooks and chains for this fight… it'd be over in seconds… Kiriyuu began to stagger as he predicted, as his strength overpowered hers –

"You're a joke. Swinging around those oversized forks carelessly… I'll have fun sending you away in an ambulance."

She smirked at him, looking positively haughty like that, and he didn't like it. It felt like she was scorning him; it was rare of Hibari to begin to lose his cool in a fight like this, especially against someone by the likes of her. She struggled upwards; she was beginning to overpower him. Her arm tensed, and then, she whipped back round and broke through his defence - Hibari was sent a few steps back, with a dull pain on his left cheek. Surprisingly enough, what he had experienced was nothing, compared to the pain he felt from his entire body of broken bones. Something clicked in his brain then as a few drops of blood dripped on the floor, just a few centimetres from his feet. He looked back up at her, as she twirled the bloody trident blades one after the other, and regained her stance with the two trident blades.

When she charged forwards again; she was careful to avoid his tonfa – and slid under his arm with a bend of her knees then reappeared behind him – she threw her arms out with the blades and connected the two trident blades together by their rounded bases and when she pulled them apart – a chain emerged, joining the two tridents together, and Hibari's eyes widened slightly as the chain pressed tightly against his neck.

Kiriyuu began to drag him behind with the chain completely crushing his throat; he was starting to get it – this girl had been trained in performing **stealth kills** performed by assassins and hitmen, and other killing arts… whatever the hell they were called (obviously the name of the arts depended on what cult you belonged to and their trademark fighting style).

He glared up at her through the corner of his eyes, as she applied much more pressure, trying to strangle him completely; he put up a fight violently, and Kiriyuu began to lose her previous advantage due to his brute force - they both went crashing into a pile of a pile of debris, and when Kiriyuu's grip on the chain loosened; he finally threw her off him.

She staggered backwards, holding onto the wall for support, and swung one of the tridents forwards by the chain, but he dodged by rolling to the side and the trident went crashing into the wall instead. She reeled back the chain with a rough jerk, but he threw his tonfa and it knocked the trident away from her direction – when Kiriyuu looked back forwards; Hibari was already in front of her – he caught her by the arm, and pressed his remaining tonfa against her neck, jamming it against her windpipe.

"You're not Kiriyuu."

She merely grinned at him, the tonfa still pressing down on her neck. "Who's to say I'm Kiriyuu or not?" She spluttered out, yet still trying to grin.

Then she shoved herself away from his tonfa by swinging under – and she had to let go of her other trident – she twisted her arm around and doubled back to her front. Kiriyuu… M… Kiriyuu – whatever, dived to the ground for a trident and came back up with the chain, guiding another flying trident towards his chest – he blockaded her attack with his tonfa and she pulled both of the tridents back to her now into her hands, before using both of them to slam down on him, and she was sure she had got him but – Hibari had had blocked her attack, almost onto his knees as she further pushed down. She pressed down on the tridents fiercely. He shuddered, almost grinding to a complete halt.

No, he wouldn't lose, despite the previously fight he had with Mukuro, and his stupid two lackeys. He especially wouldn't lose to _her_. But she was different now; her strength was not he had been expecting at all, especially from a weak girl like her. But she was not so seemingly weak anymore. Sure, her skills and tactics weren't at the same level as his, but… all that time she had spent with him… he didn't put much consideration into her true potency.

His anger seemed to have finally soared off the scale. She was going to pay now. She was going to pay for everything she had done. He was going to make her regret every single lie she told him. He would get even with her. He was going to kill her, skin her and roast her. With an ounce of strength he mustered, he pushed her off him; she stumbled, temporarily fazed - and he swiped her head with the tonfa, making her reel backwards away from him. She detached the chain, so now both tridents were not conjoined anymore – Hibari picked up his other tonfa.

He realised this might have been the work of Mukuro. Kiriyuu must be controlled completely by Mukuro. This entity called M inhabiting Kiriyuu's body is probably his doing.

_Or maybe Kiriyuu believes that she is someone else, someone named M._

Then again, maybe she was on drugs.

M/Kiriyuu blinked, as she stopped, breathing heavily. But then she laughed, smearing the blood from her chin; it wasn't any of her giggly, high-pitched crap either. They came at each other with at the same time; Hibari responded swiftly and cuffed her at the side with his remaining tonfa; she countered. He went stumbling back slightly towards the broken window, blood dripped from a wound in his head. She grunted, her jaws dripping with blood and onto the floor. She smeared away at her mouth, frowning. She spat out a tooth.

Yeah, it must be drugs.

"This isn't over yet." He said, holding his tonfas up again. What else was he going to say? Nuuu, Kiriyuu, don't do it. I know you're still gooood, and you have to be stronger than _**her**_. M, whatever the hell you called her. I know she's controlling you, but you can do sooooo much_ more_.

I. Believe. You.

He'd rather leapt off this building than say that crap.

Kiriyuu being 'controlled' was her own business. It was up to her to defeat this malevolent entity, this…. 'M'.

Breathing heavily, she aimed towards his torso with the trident with a malicious grin – he dodged again, attempted to attack her with a tonfa, but then she dodged and she came at him instead with her other trident mercilessly – which connected with the cold steel of his other tonfa with a loud 'clang'. They wrestled fiercely, his tonfa digging into her stomach, her trident blade inching towards him. Kiriyuu flinched, biting down on her lip as the blood stain on her wounded shoulder became darker and darker. Blood began to drip from under the tiny section of her exposed stomach of her blazer, from her shoulder wound, and the unseen wound on her leg. It was remarkable that she was still moving. It was also truly remarkable that Hibari was still moving, with half his bones broken.

The struggle continued; Hibari was going to get to her, and she gritted her teeth; she wouldn't let him – but damn it, Kiriyuu's stupid body was so weak. It was giving out – and it was just a wound to her shoulder from Elia's gun, but she was bleeding so much that her vision was beginning to blur. She growled, she wouldn't lose, but Hibari was too strong yet -

The trident slipped past, and rammed into Hibari's arm.

There was a slight pause. Kiriyuu stared, wide-eyed. Hibari wasn't looking at her; his bangs covering his eyes. She blinked, suddenly frozen in mid-action as blood trickled down from the prick on his arm. She had expected him to dodge that… it was really an easy attack to dodge… but… he didn't. She turned to him in shock; Hibari had been bleeding an awful lot despite that stab she inflicted on him in the back of the arm… and it wasn't because of the previous fight with Ken and Chikusa… Of course! Mukuro must've fought Hibari previously… and…

Hibari… must've… _lost_.

She leant off her blade slightly. She didn't even notice that Hibari was in pain. She had been too preoccupied with her own plans. Hibari went completely immobilised all over. She trembled slightly; he wasn't doing anything, just standing still on his spot, his dishevelled hair still covering his eyes. He wasn't in a defensive stance or anything.

Kiriyuu blinked, a hand crept over one side of her face and let her fingers tangle in her hair, clutching at her head.

_Urgh…. What's… what's going on?_

She looked at her bloodied hands and swiped at her face with the back of her hand – her scar had opened up, bleeding frenziedly. Her blazer was also drenched in blood and even her skirt was patched up blood blobs. Her leg was aching. She suddenly hurt. She suddenly hurt all over. She didn't even realise. The whole time… she had been acting on impulse.

Two realities merged together.

There was one where Kiriyuu was watching a fight through the eyes of another. The other was where she was the one who had been fighting. There was no difference.

_B-But M…_

M was gone. Kiriyuu looked at her hands, that were clutching the tridents. She had been fighting Hibari just by herself this whole time. She had been fighting Hibari all by herself.

Not M.

_I don't understand._

As Kiriyuu hesitated to move – a hand gripped the exposed blade of the trident, and a thin stream of blood rushed from his clenched palm. She recoiled back in shock, as Hibari slowly pulled out the long, thin knife out of his arm. She then suddenly found the trident flying out of her arms again and it landed on the ground a few feet from them.

Her eyes widened as she watched her weapon clatter to the ground, when she turned back to Hibari, a tonfa was coming at her way.

She didn't know what to do at the precise moment – but she managed to back-flip away clumsily – another impulse - narrowly missing another tonfa to her head as she got back up. He came at her again, and she blocked the tonfa with her arm – the one that was probably broken by Hibari's previous attack now, and she winced, squeezing her eyes shut as a stinging pain temporarily paralysed her over completely. She bit down her lip, hard and let out a sharp cry.

Kiriyuu knew immediately - this battle was over; she was a sitting duck if she didn't do anything – and he certainly didn't waste any time in completely annihilating her – as he charged forwards towards her – he could've sworn he saw the corner of her lip tug into a small smile – just before he hit both his tonfas one after the other into her and a thick stream of blood spurted out from her mouth. She went sailing into the air, and then promptly tumbled back down ineptly.

He caught her body before she could land on the ground.

But the impact of her body made his knees go out. Hibari flopped under her as they both crashed onto the ground, her head resting over his stiff collarbone, her bloody blazer mingling with the blood on his shirt. He grunted. He hurt all over on an extreme scale. The last of his jointed bones had probably cracked and withered away now… and all because of this annoying girl… He looked down at her, panting slightly, and closed his eyes.

She coughed up some more blood herself then, a red stream leaking down her chin. Hibari hit her pretty hard, and now she felt like she had broken her entire ribcage, but she ignored the growing pain, and intook a shaky breath of air.

"…. Hibari…" She croaked out as she looked up, wincing as she hurt everywhere; this would teach her a lesson to mess with Hibari for the final time. Defeating Hibari was simply…. _**Impossible**_. And he wasn't even at his full strength.

Hibari's grip loosened from his tonfas; he let go of them, actually, and they clattered onto the ground – and then – he strained one eye open to glance down at her. She didn't seem to notice – and he pulled her down on top of him with one hand behind her head, supporting himself using the back of his elbow, her lips instantly meeting with his. Kiriyuu jerked and flailed violently under his grip, her hands flying everywhere as she felt his lips crush over hers. He pulled away after a few moments, and Hibari quickly flipped her onto her back, now hovering above her.

She stared at him wide-eyed again, then she frowned up at him and looked away, her face slightly red. "Congratulations, Hibari… _you win_. You…. really don't lose to anyone… or _**anything**_ for all that matters now, do you?"

Hibari pulled his head back up a few moments later. She had changed to that other person again. "I want Kiriyuu back."

She blinked at him. And then, that smirk returned to her face as she looked back up at the ceiling and laughed. "I am Kiriyuu…" She began, a little half-heartedly. "… This is what I'm really like, Hibari. A scheming, calculative, manipulative bitch who has almost everyone wrapped around her finger, well… almost everyone…. By that, I mean _**you**_…." She giggled, and reached a hand up to weave her fingers through his hair teasingly.

He grabbed her hand, pulled it out of his hair.

Her smirk dropped, but she made herself comfortable on the ground, still pinned underneath him. "I may not be strong… and I knew I wouldn't be able to win in a fight against someone by the likes of you because I don't like getting my hands dirty… but I try my best to get what I want in the end… Doesn't that make you want to bite me to death??" She finished that statement with a playful, yet malicious smirk.

He glared at her. She was still toying around with him. "No, you're not like that." With that, Kiriyuu's smirk vanished; she gave him a dirty look. She was confused. He continued, "You're nothing like Kiriyuu." He answered back coldly, "Give me her back. I want _Kiriyuu_. I want **MY **Kiriyuu. My weak, pathetic Kiriyuu. I want her. Not you."

In response, Kiriyuu gawked at him wordlessly. Her mouth opened slightly, then closed. It opened again, but she never said anything. He watched her. She still didn't say anything, but let out a weak laugh instead. "Kiriyuu has gone for good. I got rid of her. She doesn't exist anymore."

No, she's not, he said. She's still there. She's been here all along. There is no such thing as another person named M who has been inhabiting Kiriyuu's body. It's just Kiriyuu. "Look at me."

She glared. "No."

"Look at me." He repeated. There was a short silence. He tried again. "You're not M. You're Kiriyuu. Look at me."

"_**NO!**_" She suddenly screamed at him raucously, and he noticed that her eyes were actually rather watering, and she sounded more distraught than angry. She was breathing heavily, eyes spitting venom. But then, her voice doubled into laughter.

He glowered at her, and he then seized her chin with his hand, forced her to look back at him square in the eye. His frown worsened. The sound of her cold, mirthless laughter grew in volume, echoing around the lonely walls. "What's so funny?"

"You want Kiriyuu back?" She sneered at him, still lying under him, as she stopped laughing, "YOU'RE TOO LATE!!!" She snarled at him, yet struggling violently under him as he pinned her wrists down. "All Kiriyuu needs, is me. I will always be there for her, and that's something you can't possibly give her. _**You**_, turned me into this, _Hibari Kyouya_. You turned me into what I am today. You want little-fickle Kiriyuu?!!! WELL, SHE DOESN'T WANT YOU ANYMORE!!!" She then threw her head back, screaming with insane laughter once again as she fell around in hysterics

Surprisingly enough, Hibari frowned. "I don't believe you."

"_Get off me_." She demanded furiously, and suddenly, Hibari felt something prod into his chest.

He looked down; she was holding a small handgun.

She grinned. "Let's see if you lose to this, hmmm?" A maniacal grin spread over her features as she cocked the gun. "NOW GET OFF ME OR I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Then suddenly, her feral expression broke down, and she began to cry.

He stared at her; he watched her change back and forth, switch personalities. Now she had switched from the berserk maniac to the sobbing wreck in front of him, gasping breathlessly in between sobs. To her complete and utter horror; she felt his fingers wrap around the nozzle of the gun and press further into his ribs. He understood. She was breathing harder now, and she looked up into his eyes and shook her head.

"Do it then." Hibari said. She stopped sniffling all of a sudden and glanced up at him. "Kill me." Hibari told her calmly, "Or you'll regret it."

There was a long silence. Then, Kiriyuu's expression scrunched up into one of confusion. "…What?"

"You have to, or she won't leave." He was referring to M. "_She wants me to die, Kiriyuu_."

She stared. He… honestly said that? Kiriyuu gawked wide-eyed at him. "She'll… leave if… I – ?" She uttered out, her eyes searching his desperately for a logical reason. What he said suddenly made sense in a strange way - If Hibari died, it would mean that M would feel appeased. M was fuelled by hatred. Maybe M would go. Then, she shook her head - "NO! No. No…! There's got to be another way. There has to be another way, there just has to be, I can't - "

He closed his eyes, then re-opened them briefly. " - I'll be fine."

She stared at him in horror, and shook her head. No, she thought, as his hand curled over hers; his eyes never leaving hers. Kiriyuu was still shaking her head at him, the corner of her eyes welling up with tears. She closed her eyes tightly; she had to resist M. She had to stop M before this would happen, but her hand wouldn't budge. It wouldn't do anything because M was holding it, and she wasn't backing down. She was too weak compared to M; and now Hibari – no, she couldn't let this happen to him. She wasn't going to let M ruin her life. Kiriyuu struggled fiercely, but it wasn't working.

Her finger was frozen over the trigger. Hibari's finger was over hers, ready to pull. He looked back at her, his finger pressed over the trigger ever so slightly. "You _will _kill me."

"NO!" She wailed out. It _had_ been her mission. _Kill_ Hibari Kyouya. But it didn't apply anymore. She looked up at him frantically, pleading. "_NO_!!!!"

He pulled the trigger.

And Kiriyuu screamed out in terror, as Hibari's body went limp and he dropped over her, motionless. "_HIBARI!!?_" With her wounded leg and aching ribs, she struggled, as she forced herself upwards, her arms wrapped around Hibari's limp form tightly. His head flopped on her shoulder, his eyes closed. "Hibari?!" There was no response. "Oh my god – please, no, not Hibari…. Hibari!!?" She shook him fiercely, tears streaming down her face. "Hibari??! Wake up!"

Still no response.

"…Hibari…??"

She then patted him gently - the back of his shirt was beginning to stain red, and Kiriyuu sobbed harder when she realised the bullet had entirely penetrated him, as her hand that was supporting him, immersed into his blood. She propped him up, let him fall into her arms, cradling him with her arms around his back gently and shaking him at the same time. She shook him furiously but he still wasn't moving. The world around Kiriyuu shattered completely once more. She had lost him. She had officially lost him. She didn't know what to do without him. She held him tighter, her fingers clenching around his shirt as tears dribbled freely down from her eyes. She sniffed heavily and wiped them away quickly. She knew if Hibari would see her like this, he'd tell her that she was pathetic cry-baby.

She waited. He didn't wake up.

And then she suddenly felt furious; she felt enraged at herself.

She shook him again. "Hibari…?" She whimpered his name again and again. Then she cried, completely breaking down against his lifeless body, squeezing her eyes shut as she pasted her face against his chest. She then took him by the arms and rattled him back and forth. "Hibari… No, please don't die… I need you!!! Don't you dare die and leave me all alone! I just found you again!! You can't die! Don't give up… _Don't you dare…!_"

She received no response from him. She then looked around helplessly. She wasn't going to give up on Hibari just now. "HELP!!" She screamed, through tears as she clutched his limp form closer to her while looking around. She wiped her eyes quickly, "Help me!! Please, help me! Gokudera! Tsuna!! Reborn?! Someone! Help…!"

Staring desperately at the stairs didn't seem to magically summon Gokudera, who was still at the bottom of the stairs and was probably unconscious for the time being. She turned back to Hibari frantically, then scrambled up. She seized him by under the arms and began to lift him up; she tried to lift him over her shoulder and on her back so she could carry him out of here.

It didn't work. Hibari was too heavy for her and her wounded leg made it far more difficult than normal. Kiriyuu stumbled and fell, with Hibari on top of her. She quickly scrabbled back up, moved him back to her lap, as she sat up, holding him tightly. He was getting cold.

"No…No, no, no!!" She screamed, and she began to rub over his arms and held him tighter. She held him as tightly as she could that he almost disappeared inside her embrace. She took off her Kokuyo blazer and wrapped it around him in a morbid attempt to keep him warm, even though she began to feel exposed to the cold; maybe it was because she was losing so much blood herself without even realising.

After a few, still seconds, and Hibari still didn't wake up, Kiriyuu re-checked his current status. She took her arm off him. Her entire arm was covered in his blood. She paled immediately and began to cry and squeak again. Then she ultimately began to curse at herself. "This is all your goddamn fault! If only you hadn't – and M! Yes, M, she… she…did this - ! No… I did…" Kiriyuu ultimately broke down against Hibari once more, and she shook him feebly.

"Wake up, Hibari! Wake up… _Wake. Up!!_"

Kiriyuu, still with Hibari's limp form in her arms, dabbed at her eyes but more came to replace what she just got rid of. She clenched her fingers through her hair and cried louder, as Hibari lay over her, unmoving. She gritted her teeth, then tightened her fist and hit him hard. When she elicited no response from him, she hit him again.

She hit him again and again and again and again.

"_Get up, Hibari!!!_"

She was getting tired, but she didn't will herself to stop. And somehow, hitting Hibari, driving her taut, bruised and bloody knuckles restlessly and continuously into the weakened, pulp of flesh that was once his still-living body, made her finally feel in control now, and all her frustration and hatred dispersed in a trace, unleashed by pounding him relentlessly and unleashing all hell loose. Just like that. But it wasn't worth it anymore. In fact, it had never been. Hibari said she would feel better if she 'killed' him. She dropped her fist slowly back to her side.

She did it.

She killed him.

"You asshole!! I HATE YOU!!" She yelled at him, tears of distraught leaking out from her eyes. She didn't feel better at all. And now the struggle to save herself in the future wasn't worth it anymore, if it meant Hibari would no longer be part of it. She was in a state of Learned Helplessness. She spotted the gun. Kiriyuu stifled back a few tears, hiccupping and snivelling. Then she crawled over and reached out for the gun. Only two bullets left.

She paused, as the sounds of her rough, ragged breathing tormented her; looked around, then her eyes finally settled on the gun. A life without Hibari was simply…meaningless. But she understood everything now. She would have nothing to live for anymore if Hibari wasn't there. She had no family now. She had no home. She had nothing.

She closed her eyes, and lifted the gun, the nozzle pointing to her head. Then she opened her eyes, and smiled, a thin, watery smile of relief as her eyes began to blur with tears. "I-I give up." She smiled spitefully at herself. "Hibari… You were right about me all along."

She closed her eyes, panting through breathless gasps as her heartbeat began to soar to over three hundred beats per minute.

"I'm… _I'm so sorry_."

She was about to release the trigger when Hibari's bloodied hand shoved the gun out of her hand fiercely. It went flying a few feet from them. Kiriyuu re-opened her eyes immediately in shock and looked down. His hand lowered, to her shoulder, and he pulled himself up using her as support. Hibari grunted weakly, and Kiriyuu was too stunned to speak or make any sort of noise, his head still nesting in the peninsula of her neck. She could feel him breathing again, yet the consistent bleeding was still a concern.

"What the_ hell_ were you thinking?" He snarled at her furiously, his tone undulated and weaker than usual. He resisted the urge to slap her into submission. He realised he had her blazer wrapped around him thoroughly, and she was left in her tank top.

She was too stunned with overwhelming relief to reply for the moment. Kiriyuu wiped away the endless amounts of tears, and looked at him fearfully. "I…I didn't know what I'd do without you, Hibari…." She muttered out monotonously, her mouth hanging open slightly. Then she broke down against him again. Hibari sat back, with Kiriyuu sobbing all over his shirt front. Before he could say anything, she then looked at him, flustered and wide-eyed. "…I… I get it now."

He winced, "What?"

"This is my resolution." She began muttering to herself again, gazing at the gun in her hand. "… I have to die. I deserve to die. I'm the one who has to die. I have to be ones who dies, Hibari. It's how it ends. It's how I end. It can't be stopped. I can't change it. I… I have to die. Or else everything in the entire world and the universe will be destroyed."

Hibari grabbed her and tried to pry the gun out of her hands. "What are you prattling about?" He barked at her angrily.

Kiriyuu was back to murmuring gibberish and quivering on the spot, then she looked up at Hibari and grabbed him by the arms. "Don't you get it, Hibari?!" She shrieked at him frantically, "I have to die! Then I wouldn't have ruined your life and everyone else's! And-And then the time flow in the space continuum will be perfectly restored and the world wouldn't end because of me!"

He raised an eyebrow.

Kiriyuu took a deep breath. "It's my destiny! Listen, I went to the future in the year – well, I don't know what year it was, but it was something like ten or something years into the future anyway - and there were robots and big, white buildings with no radiators and a lot of indoor plumbing. I met a wise, old hermit named Spanner. He told me I died. And… And… I died that time, those many years in the future, yeah, but now back here, I was sent back, back to present day, I've realised… if I die now, then everything in that year, wouldn't be so screwed up and you would be a lot more happier and time would be restored and then the threat to humanity would be over because everything that happens ten years in the future is all because of me and meddling, you see – "

He had no idea what she was talking about.

She gestured wildly with her hands. "I'm a messenger from the future - but I live in the past. It's like, getting abducted by aliens and now I know what's going to happen, I'm empowered to stop it - "

"You're on drugs." He muttered under his breath, "It's the drugs."

She shook her head, her ranting and ravings began once again, much more feverishly, "No, not drugs. I'm in rehab and I like rehab very much. In fact, right now, I should be in Hibari rehabilitation but it's not working because you're here. Anyway, I have super, special powers. I can heal. I healed my own leg. I can even make living, breathing humans. I can make life. I give life. I made M. She's exactly like me but she's stronger and smarter. She doesn't have a human head; she's got a sheep head, but she looks like me underneath only she grins a lot and she has all these plans and she takes over my body from time to time, usually she hits me on the head or sometimes she'll try and kill me. And she IS evil. If I sacrifice myself, then she'll be gone, too. And that means I'll be saving the world from her, too."

Hibari watched her. An odd sensation was growing in the pit of his stomach. A nice mixture of almost everything one can manage when one sees another reduced to this.

Then he ultimately realised that during those matter of seconds where he was shot by the gun, and fell into temporary unconsciousness, had taken another toll on Kiriyuu's mental state, adding further trauma and shock to her system.

She couldn't take anymore. It was breaking her. She was falling apart right in front of him.

He looked down, sat back, closed his eyes while try to keep Kiriyuu away from the gun as she reached for it, leaning over him and attempting to seize it from his hands. A few moments later, he re-opened his eyes, and then – He put his arms around her. His arms were really stiff.

"Hibari?" She squawked, as his arms tightened immediately around her. "What's wrong? I'll be sacrificing myself for the greater good. There's no need to be sad." She patted his back reassuringly, then began to smooth down his unruly mop with her rough fingers gently. Her other hand, that was scooped around his back, came in contact with his blood. She hugged him tighter, making sure she didn't hurt him where he was shot.

The uneasy feeling he had escalated.

"… It'll be okay… " She crooned at him, "…Once I'm gone… your life will return back to normal… and I won't bother you ever again…but I hope you know that I love you a lot and I will never love anyone else more than I love you. I love you more than my godfather and all my teddy bears at home. I even love you more than manga books and Cup Noodle and chocolate. I love you so much, Hibari, you're this person I can't live without no matter what happens and no matter how many times I act as if I hate you and say I hate you but just to let you know, I really don't inside." Her crooked smile widened considerably.

There was an odd, uncomfortable silence.

"I'm sorry, Hibari," She then said, and her smile dropped, "I'm so sorry; can you ever forgive me for leaving, for everything I've done? I was so selfish to leave you like that, and so abruptly. I can't imagine how betrayed, angry and lonely you felt during my absence. And now I have to go again. Only I'll be gone forever. I'll never see you again, and you'll never see me again."

Then she told him she was misguided into thinking that she was a hitman. She told him that ever since she was born, she knew she was destined to do something that would be worth remembering. Something phenomenal. She told him how her self-sacrifice would save the world, and him, and Namimori.

Then she told him, that 'the tissue damage, which was the overall injury, caused by a projectile such as the bullet, is determined by multiplying the mass of the round by the velocity of the round squared. Since the speed of the round is squared in this equation, doubling the speed quadruples the energy and the damage'. Then she said, therefore, Hibari would survive the gunshot, if he got proper treatment immediately.

"Shut _up_." He grunted out, and Kiriyuu blinked. "You're not going to die." He mumbled as he pried her arms off him and held her at arm's length, and she smiled at him aloofly again, "You can't die."

Why not? She asked. _Why not, Hibari? Why couldn't Ottuso Kiriyuu die?_

Pause. Then, his eyes concentrated to the ground – "Because I'll be the one who will kill you."

She blinked blankly at him again.

This must be the extent to how romantic Hibari would get in one lifetime.

"Okay."

Kiriyuu was still staring back at him miserably He was still looking down, his hair covering his eyes. "I won't let you die."

Her gaze on him intensified; the silence suddenly became even stranger, yet somehow…. comforting. "Oh." She croaked. "Well, I… I guess… That changes everything." She suddenly took his hand into her small hand, and bent his fingers one by one into a hook-shape arch, then cupped them around her neck and made fake, gagging sounds. "Go on, you can kill me. You said you wanted to."

"You idiot(!)." His tone was growing to a considerably loud volume out of his usual reach, wavering dangerously. Goddamnit, Kiriyuu really was going to be death of him someday (induce a serious case of cardiac arrest in his older years, perhaps?). Hibari pulled his arm back, abruptly hit her over the head. She didn't seem to understand what he was going through at the moment.

She flinched, " …Hibari, sometimes I just don't get you."

He looked away. "I'll kill you when I feel like it."

"… But what about the world? It's my mission to sacrifice myself."

"No, your mission was to kill me. You did it."

Kiriyuu blanked at him, then – "Oooh, I see… theoretically, I killed you and your soul is drifting in the cosmos. But that means you should have no atoms or physique - " She patted his arms, rubbed at his skin and pinched at his flesh. He stopped her, prompted her to look at him again. She blinked inquisitively at him once more. "But what about the world?" She asked again.

"Do you have any evidence to prove the world will end?"

She held her breath, then shook her head, a little reluctantly. "…So now what? What's going to happen to me now?"

"You can live."

Her next response surprised him to some extent. "I… can live?" She mumbled out. "…I have… a right to live?"

The troubled, uncomfortable sensation he had rocketed off the charts. Hibari watched her quietly, and then, he had flopped back over her front again, and Kiriyuu, still blinking slowly, his words echoed thoroughly the depths of her mind, let him rest over her lap.

"You're still cold." She suddenly said, still looking forwards, and her hands unceremoniously went to wrap the Kokuyo blazer around him tighter over his shirt.

Instead, Hibari took it off him and handed it back to Kiriyuu by rolling her up in it carefully. Then he buttoned it back up for her. She remembered the last time; the first time she was exposed to drugs. Hibari did the same too. And he carried her. He carried her all the way to the Nurse's Office.

She was now gazing at him intently. Now it was her time to do the same.

"…Hibari, I should get you to a hospital right away." She announced, tried to lift him up again, pulling his arm to slide over her shoulder. Hibari really was much heavier than last time, and she teetered over, stumbling under his weight. He must've been eating a lot of grass cookies ever since she left. A side effect of Manic depression. "I don't want you to die. I can die… but I can't let you die. It's not fair. The hospital - "

"It's too far away." He reprimanded her (it was always that tone). "You won't make it."

"Then that makes the two of us."She was smiling though the stream of blood that was still pouring from her lips. She didn't even seem to realise. "I'll still going to try. If I carry you and use the time scooter – "

"You're hurt. You need rest."

Kiriyuu suddenly croaked, and put a hand over her mouth. But then blood began to ooze out from in between her fingers. She made a 'gack' noise and doubled over; Hibari caught hold of her before she fell. When she was finished coughing up blood, she looked up at him weakly, shook her hand clean, and smiled tiredly. "I don't care. I'm worried about you." She moved to the front of him and tried to get him hauled over her back. It wasn't working. Mainly because Hibari refused. Stupid male pride. "Hibari, I have to get you out of here or - "

"Stop worrying about others and worry about yourself for once. You're ill."

Silence.

Kiriyuu suddenly darkened. "**NO!**" She shrieked at him, and her bloody hands flew to her ears, trying to block him out. Hibari was left to stand by himself once she let go of him. "I'M NOT ILL! I'm not crazy! And I don't need medicine and I don't need therapy!!!"

She did a mushroom-crouch on the floor, hands still clamped tightly over her ears with her eyes squeezed shut. Hibari moved down beside her.

" - And this entire time I've been here - Everything – always about me! Me, me, me, me! Me and my split personality, me and my evil twin, my doppelganger, my whatever, my death in ten years time! My super powers! My everything! No, not anymore! I'm not going to be selfish and think about myself anymore! Fine, if I die, then so be it! But for once, it's going to be about somebody else, other than me!"

He frowned somewhat; she sounded back to normal now. "That's stupid." Then Hibari sat back down on the ground, seized her hand from her ear, and yanked her forward into his lap. "You're stupid." He added.

There was a long silence as she struggled to get out of his lap. He didn't let her.

"But… what about you…?" She looked up at him, gripping onto his shirt for support, and she hurriedly dried away her tears and blood. She had no idea what to do. She knew she wouldn't be able to get Hibari to the hospital in time, and she didn't have anything on her to treat a gun wound. Normally, no-one would even survive a gun wound like that. But this was Hibari. He really wouldn't lose to anything for all that mattered. She trembled again and wrapped her arms around his waist, tears threatened to pour from her eyes as her fear of losing Hibari for good intensified to a tremendous amount, and she felt panicked, shaky all of a sudden, and she clutched tightly, her head pasted against his chest.

"I'm fine." He grunted out, feeling her iron grip around him.

Now that she had almost induced a Hibari-near-death-experience, she was glad Hibari wasn't gone for good. The only thing she could do now was hold onto him. Hold onto him until the very end; she just knew she had to hold him very, very tightly and not let go. She looked at him again and turned round to face him, now sitting in his lap; she needed to check if Hibari had any more injuries.

"What are you doing?"

"I have super powers, remember? So I'm going to try and give you an illusion. See, Mukuro gave me an illusion, and then, M shot me in the leg, and I think… I think it's gone because I used an illusion for that, too…"

"What about your leg then?"

She shook her head. "You're more important." She had closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. Hard. When she re-opened her eyes, she realised it hadn't worked. Of course, she didn't know how to make illusions. She wasn't handed a manual or anything. She didn't know. It just sort of came to her unconsciously. Kiriyuu groaned in frustration. "I…can't do it."

Then she stood up abruptly.

"What are you doing now?" He demanded impatiently.

"Shh, I'm concentrating." Kiriyuu then cleared her throat, closed her eyes tightly. "By the power invested me, I command you to spontaneously regenerate! Repel thy evil bullet and live!" She cried out, holding her arms out to him, one hand planted on the crown of his skull. "Regenerate! Be saved, my boy! Rise onto your feet and discover that your pain and misery and suffering have ended! Rise and rejoice!"

Pause. Hibari pried her hand off the top of his head.

She opened one eye, "Well, how are you feeling? Can you stand? Are you still in lots and lots of pain?"

It didn't work. The situation was supremely cringe-worthy and enough to burn holes in Hibari's memory for the rest of his life. "You're wasting time." Hibari reached for her and brought her back down into his lap, facing him.

She slumped, somewhat disappointed with herself; she didn't even realise him nearing her. "What?" She uttered out; Hibari didn't say anything, except from grab the sides of her face and made her look at him. "_What?_" She demanded again, with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Who gave you that?" Hibari suddenly barked at her. He was glaring crossly at the other bite mark on her neck.

Kiriyuu looked away, sweating buckets now. "….I… um, fell. On a… bunch of… toothpicks…" She swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut. Her face flared with shame. She didn't deserve Hibari anymore. After what she'd done here in Kokuyo, she felt like she had cheated on Hibari. What's worse was that she couldn't really remember what she did when she was M.

"Y-You… don't mind that I'm… very, well… possibly, and perhaps… slightly… a little…um, crazy…?" She squeaked, with a light shrug of her shoulders. Awkward grin. Her lip wobbled fiercely.

He sighed; realising that Kiriyuu would sometimes be attacked by delusions and delirious ranting, and then suddenly return back to normal for apparently no reason. He'd seen enough by now. "As Head of the Disciplinary Committee, I deal with a lot of people. Most of them are insane." He then muttered out, and Kiriyuu flushed once more. "…Did that bastard Mukuro do this to you?"

"You mean, M and stuff?" Kiriyuu looked at the ground, "… I-I don't know. Probably."

Sheesh, she didn't know anything, did she? He looked at her neck, then promptly frowned. He grabbed the sides of her face suddenly, and made her look up.

"H-Hibari - ?" She blinked slowly, staring at the ceiling and Hibari crushed his lips against her neck and bit, the same sensation on her neck - only it was a lot more coherent and compressive than before - She squeaked and clutched his sleeve. It hurt, and she could see the back of Hibari's head, just at her neck.

She let out another choked sob; Hibari lifted his face from the nape of her neck, where a red bite mark to match the other on the other side of her neck was, satisfied with his new brandished 'mark' on her – she began to cry again.

He blinked, then leant off her. Did… did he hurt her?

She wouldn't stop crying. He lifted her up from the ground slightly with him as he sat back up, not entirely, and lifted her into his lap, letting her sink into his arms like some delicate porcelain doll that needed to be handled with extra care. She grabbed onto his arm to her tightly in response, sobbing quietly.

"Please… Please don't… don't tell me to let go." She squeaked out at him, her eyes squeezed shut. "Please, let me hold on for a bit longer."

He hesitated.

"You don't know how scared I was… when I thought I lost you forever. I-I didn't know what I do… without you, Hibari." She wept bitterly over his arm, still drawing breaths unsteadily. She seemed okay now. She was safe, almost back to normal. She hiccupped and gripped tighter onto his arm, never letting go, rubbing her little face against the front of his shirt. He looked down at her as she smothered away at her eyes; she didn't look up, just continued to squeak, tremble and whimper under her breath.

Suddenly, she looked up, and wiped at her eyes. "….Hibari…?" She croaked out.

He flicked his eyes at her.

"….." She looked down, and then her cheeks began to grow tomato red. "U-Uh…C-Can… Can I… C-Can I-I… um, kiss you?"

Oh god. She had to ask him for _**permission**_?! Kiriyuu burnt red with shame that it had come to this. How embarrassing…

Hibari raised an eyebrow. Then –

"No."

It felt like a tonne of cinderblocks had dropped on her head. Kiriyuu went wide-eyed and she spluttered, flailed wildly with her arms and squawked and scrabbled. Then she eventually stopped. Defeated. "VOOOII?! W-What…? I-Is it me?! A-Am I that…that...that..._**repulsive**_?! I'm… Is it… M-My _face_?? Too flat?? Too square? D-Does it remind you of a horse? Am-Am I that -- ?! What is it? My nose? Too pointy??! I'll get plastic surgery! What?! Why are you looking at me like that now?? Stop giving me such a dirty look! What's wrong? TELL ME. GOD! It's my nose, right? I knew it. Oh. Okay. You know what? _Fine_."

Kiriyuu slumped again, humiliated at herself. She inched away from Hibari and hid her face in her hands by cupping them over, as if her nose was about to drop off. Then she spread her fingers apart, looked at him through the gaps – realised he was still giving her another look that just made her feel worse – and ultimately shyed away from him again.

"…Stop looking at me like that," She grumbled out, "…I'm humiliated enough as it is."

There were a few moments of silence.

Then two strong arms encased around her waist, and she was brought forwards, crushing into his chest. Kiriyuu, slowly moved her hands away from her face, looked up meekly, and found herself staring right back into his enthralling cobalt-grey eyes. She held her breath, her eyes scanning his rugged features. She let out another weak sniffle, and then she lifted her arms back up slowly, but put them on Hibari's face instead. He gazed at her, as she smothered away the small flecks of blood away and brushed her fingertips faintly against his fragile, fractured skin, tracing over the sore bruises and cuts Mukuro inflicted. She gazed back at him sympathetically. She was sad at what they had both become, and what had made them become like this.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember a time when things weren't as bad as it was now. She tried to remember a time when she never pointed a gun at her head or believed she had superpowers and that her self-sacrifice would save the entire universe. She tried to remember when there was laughter and happiness, and there were friends and family. There wasn't any blood and tears, there wasn't insanity and enemies. She opened her eyes again – regretted it immediately - Kiriyuu swallowed brashly as Hibari's face neared hers, and then –

She pouted at him. "…Poor Hibari."

"Stop that."

Just before his lips touched hers, she manoeuvred her hands to over his eyes and covered them very gently.

He stopped again. "What are you doing?"

"Your eyes can get scary."

He peeled her hands off his head. "_What?_"

"I said, your eyes can get – look, you're doing it again! You're giving me that dirty look – and then your eyes get all – see? I told you so, didn – mmmphffpphggh!!" She was abruptly cut off when Hibari crushed his lips against her forcefully, her eyes wide with muted shock. Kiriyuu froze altogether, in his arms, her heart practically stopped beating and after a split second, she began to thoroughly resist, struggling under the grip of his arms, trying to decipher what was really going on at the same time.

His arms tightened its hold on her in response; and she felt herself compress further against him securely. He kept her supported in his embrace with his calloused hands that were cupped under her thighs roughly, pulling her tightly and closer to him. Kiriyuu let out a muffled squeak at the awkward position of his hands; she really hadn't been expecting this _at all_. His lips pressed over hers, a little frantically, as if he wasn't bothering if she responded back at all. He hungrily nipped over her skin, deepening the kiss further that she found herself having to back slightly even though he was forcing her to melt against him. She made a funny noise; he still didn't stop, except make sure every contour of her mouth had been at least skimmed over and nibbled at with his lips.

It didn't seem to last very long even though it felt long, and when he pulled back eventually; she blinked dumbly in empty space. Kiriyuu was blushing profusely, her body temperature soaring off the charts, pursing her lips that they re-appeared and disappeared off the surface of her face ever so often. Her lips were still tingling, her heart hammering deafeningly against her ribs, as if it would pop out anytime soon.

"…You don't need to ask for permission." His voice was a fierce, subdued whisper, his handsome face merely centimetres away from hers.

Kiriyuu went rather cross-eyed when trying to level eyes with Hibari. This must be an illusion.

…_Right?_

Kiriyuu blinked at him dully while still sitting in his lap, still wide-eyed, and then, threw her eyes down to her lap, her face hadn't stopped burning red yet. "…What's going to happen to us…?" She murmured quietly, "Are we… are we ever going to get back to normal?"

He raised an eyebrow. "…You were never normal." Then he leaned forwards again, plundering her lips with his forcefully. Kiriyuu let out a muffled squeak when she could feel his arms clench around her firmly, shifted her so she was supported snugly in his lap. She was pulled forwards securely, and all she could do was let her eyes flutter down and melt against him, allowing his lips to wander down to her jawline and down to her neck.

When he pulled back again, she noticed his eyes didn't usually flare with that strange sense of ardour; his lips were still hovering dangerously near hers that she could feel his quick, quirky breaths. In fact, his half-lidded eyes were glued on that certain aspect of her face and she was still having a difficult time in maintaining regular breathing levels, as she felt his hair tickle her chin, and smiled hopelessly at herself.

"Oh...Hibari, what will I ever do without you?" She murmured to herself absent-mindedly.

Hibari's gaze landed at her uniform, and he frowned. Kiriyuu was still blinking gobbledy-gook at the empty space; he averted his glance away from her, began fiddling with the buttons at the front of her blazer.

Kiriyuu snapped back to reality. She looked down, at his hands, then up at Hibari, and back down at his hands with widened eyes. "… What _are_ you doing?" She asked him in bewilderment.

He swerved his eyes back at her; let loose the third button.

"You're still registered as a Namimori student. I'm stripping you out of this Kokuyo uniform."


	45. Repentance

**Chapter 45**

_Repentance_

Back upstairs, Tsuna felt the wind being strangled out of him, and he doubled backwards, crumpling to the floor gracelessly in a heap as Reborn unwound the whip from around his windpipe, and handed it to Tsuna as soon as he stood back up.

"I borrowed this from Dino earlier, use it to fight."

The whip was now pressed firmly into his hands. Tsuna gawked at the cool, long, thick strip of leather, looking silly. "I can't use a whip! I don't know how!" He screamed in protest, "What do you expect me to do with it?"

"Do whatever you want. If you don't fight, you'll die."

"My opponent is Fuuta!! How could I possibly fight him!?!" He retorted back helplessly.

"That's your problem."

Meanwhile, Mukuro watched leisurely as the bickering sessions between tutor and student dragged on, he checked the clock on the wall. Kiriyuu was taking a long time, and she hadn't been responding to him at all, either. He turned back to Tsuna and Reborn. "Kufufu. What will you do now, tenth boss of the Vongola?"

Tsuna perked up then. _That's right! All I have to do is aim for Mukuro!_ He went charging towards the boy in the seat; maybe he looked silly, waving and thrashing the whip around in his hand frantically – but Tsuna didn't care anymore. This Mukuro had to be defeated whether he would look silly defeating him or not; he lurched the whip forward, then –

"ARGH!"

The whip lashed back at him, hitting him in the eye instead. Mukuro laughed at the sight; and Tsuna flopped to the ground, then looked behind him as he lay on the floor in another crumpled heap again, as soon as he felt a weight lag behind him. "Fuuta!!" He shrieked, as he realised the little boy had got tangled up with him and was now slashing at him with his trident. "Nuuuu! Stop it, Fuuta!"

And then Tsuna realised. _He… He has the same eyes as Lanchia-san…. Could… Fuuta also have suffered Mukuro's mind control and ended up doing something unspeakable…. The sense of guilt… and then…_

"UWWWAGHHH!" He screamed, as he looked back and realised that Fuuta was now about to stab him in the nose.

But there it was –

Those… _eyes._

No, not puppy-dog eyes. Something much more…. It was deep, with a little more edge. Dare he say it… He could feel it. He could feel Fuuta's reluctance and the strain. Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut, then opened then back up abruptly.

"It's not your fault."

There was a slight pause. Fuuta had stopped in his actions; and Mukuro had leant off his seat slightly.

"It's not your fault all." Tsuna began, his voice shaking slightly, "we're your friends, Fuuta… and you can always come back."

Fuuta stopped completely. And then – his hand flew to his head as if his brain was throbbing, bubbling like mad; his thoughts and actions flickered over one another, lapsed and fell back in complicated, never-ending circles. A wave of confusion fell over him again, and Mukuro's gaze darkened, as Fuuta eventually gave way. "Tsuna-nii…." Then Fuuta fainted.

Tsuna gaped, as blood dripped out from Fuuta's nose and ears.

"… You've gone too far." Mukuro spoke over the distil atmosphere, and Tsuna whipped his gaze up to him. "Looks like he's suffering from a clash of wills."

Reborn and Tsuna turned to him in shock.

"I believe he hasn't slept at all in these past 10 days. Come to think of it, he was the first to fall into our hands." Mukuro continued, "We came to Japan in order to find the whereabouts of the Vongola 10th boss, but we didn't have a specific location. Then we heard a rumour that Fuuta-kun here was able to recognise the 10th boss and caught him. But, he invoked the '**omerta**', and refused to talk."

_The __**omerta**__??_ Tsuna thought, blinking owlishly. _What's that? Well, pirates have something called' parley'. Is it parley then?_

As if reading his thoughts, Reborn slapped him. "Focus, Tsuna."

Mukuro continued his speech regardless if Tsuna really was listening or not (he was), "Furthermore, he closed off his heart and subsequently lose his ranking abilities."

There was an odd silence. "So, given no choice, you used Namimori's fighting strength ranking list that Fuuta made before, to flush out Tsuna and his family, right?" Reborn finished for him.

Mukuro smiled, relaxed back in the sofa. "Our plan was a huge success. The Vongola is standing before me right now."

"….. And what about Ottuso Kiriyuu?"

Tsuna paused; and turned to Reborn. "…What about Kiriyuu, Reborn?"

"Her name was on the ranking list." Reborn replied, looking at Tsuna, "I told you to be more alert to your surroundings, Tsuna."

He cringed, as Mukuro laughed. Reborn looked away from Tsuna, straight directly to Mukuro. "…. Kiriyuu was the second to fall into our hands. It was easy. She came to me with her little cousin, Elia. I honestly didn't expect her to break so easily when she was brought up on stage." He replied for Reborn, with a smirk gracing his lips again, "But then again, when she was shot down by her own cousin, I could tell why she lost her mind."

Tsuna and Reborn stared at him.

Mukuro looked at his hands, flexed them leisurely again. "At first, I DID plan to use her instead for my plans, since she also came from a mafia background with a tremendous amount of history… but the Giglio Nero is a fairly advanced famiglia, compared to the Vongola… with you, being the newly-appointed tenth boss."

Now an uncomfortable silence plagued the entire room.

"….So it was much easier to target a fresh, weaker family," Mukuro finally added, leaning back once more as he scanned from Reborn to Tsuna, "… And having a firearms expert like little Kirie-chan only continued to make my plan even more successful."

Tsuna was now facing the floor, his bangs hiding his eyes, "What did you do to her…?" But then he looked back up, eyebrows furrowing tightly. "What did you do to Kiriyuu?! Did you mind-control her?! Is that why she… she feels so…. weird to be around than before?!"

"I think you can answer that yourself. Or better, your right-hand man. The one with all the bombs. You left her with him, right?"

Tsuna blinked.

"I'm not entirely controlling Kiriyuu, if that is what you want to hear."

Tsuna gritted his teeth. _That's a lie!_ _What has he done to Kiriyuu? How would he know what's going on? What about Gokudera-kun? _"Just what do you think people are, Rokudo Mukuro?!" Tsuna yelled at him furiously, his fists clenching tightly; knuckles almost turning white.

In response, he flicked Tsuna a lazy glance, and put his hand to his chin, "…. Toys, I suppose."

**Back downstairs…**

Hibari grabbed Kiriyuu's chin and planted another kiss; she tried to push him back but it seemed he wasn't intent on letting go. When she finally managed to pull him back to some extent, she said, "Hibari, now's not really the time - " She was briefly cut off when he forced her lips against his again. From the corner of her eyes, she saw something strange, and pushed him back slightly once more. "What is that thing bobbling towards us? Looks like a golden snitch. Only covered with lint."

"It's a bird."

Kiriyuu blinked, just when Hibari forced her to look back at him and leaned in; this time, she shielded her lips with her hands. He frowned. "Oh. Right. Sorry, blood's in my eye. That bird. Bird's bird. You brainwashed it into thinking that you're its new master." She rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you. The whole time you've been down there, you tamed a bird and tamed it to sing a song, and you didn't think of taming it so it could fly off and tell people you were stuck down there? To be honest, the first thing I would've done was gone to a hospital."

"The wall was caved in." He replied, as the bird nestled down on his shoulder.

"…..Right." Kiriyuu stared at the bird, "What? You're thinking of keeping it? But it's, like, that pudgy guy's pet. He was disgusting. And he had two more. That means you should let this one go so it can be with the rest of his brethren."

Then, the bird flew off Hibari and Kiriyuu blinked, as it hovered circles around her, and when she lifted up her hand, the bird settled down on it. She stared. The bird cocked its head to the side, and chirped at her. Kiriyuu continued staring, but her lips curled slightly and now she had this silly look on her face. Oh. Instant love.

"Aww... I'm sure it'll be fine without its bird-brothers. What are you going to call it?"

Kiriyuu was still in her uniform, having managed to fend Hibari off from her clothes, arguing back with ostentatious statements and surprisingly enough, had convinced Hibari that he was the one who should be 'stripped' of his uniform - for wound inspection. She was only hurt in the shoulder and the leg, with some minor injuries to her face and arm, but nothing potentially threatening. Hibari was shot in the side and many bones were broken; much more serious than Kiriyuu's overall health. Therefore, the Hibari autopsy would begin without further ado.

"Okay, you know what? Let's do this. Are you ready? Here I go."

Her arms couldn't move.

"….Now."

She still didn't move, just smile awkwardly at Hibari who was sitting upright against the wall, waiting for her to take off his shirt so she could 'wound inspect'. It still felt wrong.

"Any minute now."

Hibari rolled his eyes, then he began to unbutton his own shirt, realising that she was too chicken to undress him just for a thorough examination of his bodily injuries. It was JUST a check-up. Nothing more. Really.

Kiriyuu stared. She wetted her lips unconsciously as she watched him endlessly, transfixed with the situation - much to her own displeasure and morals – then she wiped her sweaty palms on her blazer over and over again, closed her eyes and she began to snivel slightly (maybe she was suppressing a nosebleed). "… Hey, Hibari?" She croaked out.

The bird flew to the windowsill. Hibari finished unbuttoning his shirt and pulled it off his shoulders, leaving him in a bloodstained white vest. "What?"

"What… What about Mukuro?"

Hibari's eyes narrowed dangerously and Kiriyuu swallowed. "What about him?"

"…Are you going to… hurt…him?"

"I'm going to kill him."

Kiriyuu bit her lip, and closed her eyes, then – "Don't hurt him. He's… He's not that bad."

Pause. Hibari slid down to the ground because it didn't hurt as much if he was lying down. "Do you like him?" If she said yes, then he would definitely kill him.

"N-No! I mean… Don't kill Mukuro… because he's still….a friend…uh… I…suppose." Kiriyuu said, her eyebrows arching upwards pathetically, overridden with doubt. "I don't want to see you two killing each other. You'll get even hurt. I'll be sad."

Damn it, why should she be defending Mukuro at a time like this?

"Fine. Go back to him if you want and leave me alone." He lifted up his vest to some extent to examine the bullet wound.

"W-Wha?!" Her jaw dropped – and not because he had unintentionally revealed more of his skin that she could imagine – but because she was positively distraught. "Nooo! I didn't mean it that way!" She then grabbed onto him, her hands bunched up at his loose shirt ends, clutching him tightly.

Hibari irked. "Get off."

"No, Hibari, I'm sorry!! No, please…! I didn't mean to – you know what I'm like - "

He wasn't listening to her anymore, had re-buttoned up half of his shirt and turned away from her on the ground; Kiriyuu was immediately swamped with panic and a nice view of Hibari's bloodstained back.

"Hibari! I-I'm so sorry!" She screamed, hesitating to also yell out, 'Forgive me, Hibari, I love youuu!' But maybe even that wasn't enough to make Hibari turn around and accept her profound apology. She went 'arggh' with frustration, then lay on the ground herself, moved onto her side and wiggled towards him. He winced when he felt a tight squeeze on his wounded arm, and she immediately backed off, knowing that she had hurt him by accident. "I'm sorry, I haven't been myself lately…. And M didn't… I didn't really stab you near your ulnar nerve by the way. Or you'd never be able use your arm ever again. M just wanted to freak you out. She does that. And I'm fine, really. I'm worried about you – getting stabbed and shot isn't good for one day."

Hibari twitched ever-so-slightly. She was supposed to be clearing him up free of blood and checking to see if any bones were broken but here she was getting extra close than he normally would've wanted. "This is nothing." He had finally turned back round to her.

"Please, Hibari, I'm really worried about you. I won't mention anything else about…. You-know-who." She then hissed out quietly. You-know-who equals Muh-Koo-Ro.

Hibari didn't say anything. But he did move back to his front, and Kiriyuu let out a sigh of relief. Hibari had been pretty tolerant of her for some time. Maybe he was tired of it all.

She asked, very quietly, "A-Are you hurt?"

No response.

"Okay, I'll find out for myself."

Hibari watched. She reluctantly inched closer to him, closed her eyes and ploughed her hands blindly over his chest. She groped around at his lower torso, then stopped. She opened her eyes again, and her mouth dropped slightly to some extent

Hibari looked away from her hand, and back to her. "What?"

"It's…It's gone." She looked at him, and quickly, yet carefully, smeared away the blood surrounding the bullet wound with a ripped strip of the Kokuyo uniform, and discovered that it was indeed, gone. Vanished. Just like that. "I did it." She giggled awkwardly at herself, sat up immediately. "It's really gone. I used illusions!"

He frowned as he got up afterwards. He was assured that he would despise illusions from now on. "What about your leg?"

"…I don't know. It doesn't hurt."

He sat up. "Let me look at your shoulder."

"No, I'm fine. You're my top priority."

He glared.

She swallowed as he predatorily skulked towards her. "Stay still." He ordered.

Kiriyuu thoroughly protested, but Hibari ignored her, had pulled his shirt back over himself, and grabbed her by the arms. "…Really, I'm fine!" She squawked. He ignored her again, and as she relentlessly squandered and flailed in his iron grip, he grabbed a section of her uniform and pulled it apart. The sound of fabric ripping jostled her with embarrassment. She whipped her head up from the ripped uniform in astonishment. "Hibari!"

He didn't respond, just continued gazing at her exposed shoulder.

Kiriyuu leant away slightly. "…H-Hibari?"

Still no response.

Someone cleared their throat above them. Kiriyuu looked up, Hibari was still staring at her marbled flesh; it was Gokudera. His face was tomato-red, and he was trying to avoid looking at them. "…. You guys finished yet?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Kiriyuu replied, and she pulled back the strap of her top that had fallen over her shoulders, and Hibari finally stopped staring. She buttoned her uniform back up and stood meekly in her bloody uniform and the ugly green skirt, muddy black boots. She sighed. "…. Gokudera…. You… aren't angry at me? You… don't… blame me?"

"What? For attacking me earlier on with your crazy fork?"

"It's a trident."

Hibari and Gokudera watched her twirl the trident in her right hand, then the one in the left, and put them into the sides of her belt, like as if they were guns. "They can both be connected by this chain – "She reached over and grabbed the discarded chain, then linked both ends of the chain to the hilts of the tridents. "You can use them like nunchuks, but I hate nunchuks. So I use them like javelins instead." She grabbed one of the tridents and hurled it far; it slammed into a pile of rocks and Gokudera and Hibari watched the dust cloud gathering, and she jerked the chain back fiercely; the trident flew up, returning to her hand. "No offense, Gokudera, but I don't like dynamite or grenades."

"Why?"

"Because you die if you hold onto them for too long."

Gokudera blinked dully. "…Right."

She wasn't listening to him anyway, seemingly intent in showing off to Hibari (who couldn't care less either), and continued, " - And compared to tridents, well… this pair are foldable and durable. Forks aren't like that, well, except from sporks…" She gave him an awkward look as she picked up her matching set of trident blades. She stuffed them back into the holsters which were now strapped to her back.

"Look, it's fine." Gokudera grunted, "… Juudaime said no matter what happens… We could trust you…. and that you would never hurt us." He groaned at how cheesy and cliché those words he had just said came out.

Of course, Gokudera never doubted Tsuna's words. Kiriyuu was relatively surprised by his loyalty. She bit down on her lip. Then -

_Kiriyuu…_

She looked up at the sound of her name being called out. "What?"

Gokudera and Hibari glanced back at her briefly. "…What?" Gokudera snapped back.

Kiriyuu blinked blankly at them. "Didn't you just - ?"

"Didn't we just 'what'?" He demanded irately. "What is it? What's wrong with you??"

She was confused, but nevertheless, shook her head. "N-Nothing…Just hearing things. I'm… I'm really sorry for attacking you guys, I was being controlled by M…Mukuro… I didn't know what I was doing."

"Man, that guy is one sick bastard." Gokudera muttered, fingering his pockets for a packet of cigarettes – there wasn't any, unfortunately, "How did you get mixed in with him anyway?"

"… Elia was a hostage. I tried to save her. Guess he must've gotten to me too."

"You were shot by your own cousin?" Gokudera said.

"… It was Mukuro."

Gokudera's mouth hung open slightly. "Well, what are we standing here for?! Juudaime and the others have probably found them! They need our help! What are you waiting for???"

_Kiriyuu…_

That voice again. Kiriyuu looked up and around but it seemed Gokudera and Hibari couldn't hear it. She swallowed down, deciding to keep it to herself. "…No, I… I want to go home."

Gokudera blinked at her. "Huh?"

"…I-I mean… Hibari and I are really hurt. Well, Hibari is - I need to take him to a hospital…I'm sorry." She squeezed her eyes shut; she was also afraid of facing Mukuro again, and M, maybe. She wanted to get past this entire ordeal and act like nothing had happened. She wanted everything to go back to normal, and everything that had happened – everything that she did, just to save herself in the future… she didn't want that chance to be ruined. She could die here. She was hurt enough as it was, and Hibari was another risk she wasn't willing to take anymore. She struggled so much, and went through so much, all she wanted was to get out of this place alive.

No more, she thought. But… could she really avoid it?

"I feel fine," Hibari said, and Kiriyuu smacked her forehead mentally, ultimately remembering how stubborn he could get at some point. "You can go home if you like."

"I'm not leaving you behind."

"You're not leaving anyone behind." Hibari replied back, "Just go."

"I don't want you to be by yourself here – "

Gokudera rolled his eyes. Urgh. Couples in public were annoying. "Just make up your goddamn mind!" Gokudera yelled at her, shaking his fists, "Juudaime might be in trouble!!!"

Kiriyuu flinched, then scratched at her arm, biting down on her lip, hard. She looked at Hibari, then at Gokudera, then at the floor. "…Okay, I'll stay. I'd rather be with Hibari." Then she flinched again as she had unconsciously moved her wounded arm and leg; she was only shot in the shoulder about a couple of days ago. The one in her leg was burning rapidly. She groaned in pain and Hibari turned to her. She looked up from the wound in her shoulder and smiled at him weakly. "I'll be fine."

Gokudera was looking out the window, his eyes casted down on the stirring bodies of Ken and Chikusa. "They're waking up. We better get ready for some company." He uncovered several sticks of dynamite from his jacket pockets.

"Oh. Um. Right." Kiriyuu hesitantly took out her matching tridents from their leather holsters and spun them like the way those old cowboys did with their silver revolvers in those old western movies, then she moved to an offensive stance.

Hibari then frowned immediately. "No." He merely said calmly, and Kiriyuu stopped, listened to his commanding voice, spellbound as usual. "You're not staying here. Go upstairs."

Kiriyuu blinked at him, and dropped her stance. "…But – " She paused, and looked down. "I want to fight…"

"You're hurt." He barked at her, looking at her with half-lidded eyes, "You'll only get in the way as usual."

Her lip wobbled slightly. "…But I don't want to leave you – "

"I'll come for you."

Kiriyuu's jaw slightly dropped. She lowered her tridents. "W-What…did you say?"

"I said _I'll come for you_." He repeated himself, rolling his eyes again. Everything he said to her always had to be repeated once or twice…

"…But what about you? And Gokudera?"

"I'll be fine." Gokudera said, gnawing fiercely on his cigarette without looking at her. This was a good reason why he thought interaction of couples in public was the most annoying thing he could ever witness. Here was googly-eyed Kiriyuu, here was Hero-Hibari.

The look on Hibari's face gave her the answer straight away. "Go upstairs." He said. "I'll come for you."

The corner of her lips tugged upwards into a silly smile. "O-Okay!" She screamed happily, and Kiriyuu triggered back into movement, and made her way hurriedly to the ladder, climbing back up fast as she could, making her way towards Mukuro's direction.

But before she left, he didn't notice that her green eyes flicked red for a brief moment.

He watched her retreating back. She disappeared through the hole in the floor upstairs and he could hear stomping footsteps from her boots thumping around. He knew Mukuro would be there, waiting. And that No-Good Sawada boy wouldn't protect her. She'd probably end up protecting him.

Maybe sending her up by herself wasn't a good idea after all.

……………

Kiriyuu arrived upstairs and stopped at the landing. Her vision began to get blurred, and a high-pitched, crackling noise stormed through her mind. "Urgh…!" She winced out, clutching her head.

_Kiriyuu, why aren't you listening to me? _

She shook her head vigorously, trying to clear her thoughts. She held onto the wall for support, before stumbling against it entirely. "No…"

_Come here. I need you. I need you now. _

"No…Leave me alone…!"

_You're making me upset, Kiriyuu. You don't want me to take over you now, do you?_

"Just…Just get away from me!"

It was too late. Kiriyuu couldn't move her body, her green eyes flickered red, and she slowly brought herself away from the wall, making her way towards Mukuro.

…………….

Mukuro thought people were toys, and there on the ground lay Fuuta and Bianchi, while Tsuna's anger was finally boiling that even his blood seemed to have soared up to 100 degrees in temperature. Mukuro actually didn't realise that the next Vongola boss would be this puny kid, either. He actually felt much older than the Vongola, to be honest. The kid was also undoubtedly petrified of him. It rather amused him. His thoughts then drifted off to a certain girl who should've left her room, had a fight with Hibari, and should be making her way up here now. Well, after he was done with the Vongola and his annoying cronies, they'd finally be ridden of their burdens and he could start his reign of terror. Or something like that anyway.

Despite Tsuna's knees which were clattering against each other helplessly and unconsciously, he grabbed the whip that Reborn had given, and charged towards Mukuro with nothing else raging in his mind except from the fact that he wanted to keep his friends protected and safe from this guy.

"Damn you, Mukuro!" Tsuna yelled, waving the whip around carelessly.

Mukuro stood up, however. "… Do you really think that you can go hand-to-hand directly against me?"

Tsuna yelled another battle cry, and suddenly, Mukuro's red eye began to spin – in an instance, Tsuna and Mukuro had passed each other, and then, Tsuna felt as though he had been slashed at with tiny, sharp daggers – but he hadn't seen Mukuro protrude out a weapon – until now…

"Ow ow ow ow!" Tsuna yelped, as a gash appeared on his cheek, bleeding profusely.

"What's…" Mukuro began, as he held the trident spear that had seemingly come from nowhere. "… the matter?"

Tsuna gritted his teeth, as his body just didn't seem to move.

"… You just left yourself out wide and open, Vongola." Mukuro said again, and as Tsuna braced himself for impact, thinking that Mukuro was going to finally end his life for sure –

Something stabbed into his side from behind, just barely, though. Tsuna screamed, staggering forward to Mukuro slightly.

"…You're finally here, Kiriyuu."

Tsuna watched the silhouette that had appeared behind him step into the light. He gasped loudly; it _was_ Kiriyuu. She was bleeding everywhere, from her face, her arm, her leg, her gut. The creepy red eye was glowing furiously.

She was being controlled.

And she was holding a trident identical to Fuuta's, that was dripping with blood – and his blood - and she was advancing. _No!_ He thought; _Mukuro's really gotten to Kiriyuu as well!_ Her Kokuyo blazer was splattered with an insane amount of blood.

"Can't you see she is suffering, Vongola? I am the only one who can take her away from this."

"… What you did to Lanchia-san and Fuuta was unforgivable! How dare you do this to Kiriyuu, too!" Tsunsa gritted his teeth.

"I have complete control over her that she will listen to whatever I tell her to. Like this, for example." Mukuro tilted his head upwards slightly, his eyes looking down, he then gave a brief nod.

Tsuna watched in horror. Mukuro's smile widened further.

Her left eye gleamed a bright, carmine colour, and Kiriyuu moved again. Only this time, she stabbed the trident into herself -

Tsuna 's eyes widened profoundly. "_**NO!**_" Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "STOP IT!!! STOP IT RIGHT NOW, ROKUDO MUKURO!"

Mukuro made her stop for the moment; and she pulled the tip out of her arm, breathing heavily at an insane pace. "Hmm, that's quite right. I wouldn't want poor Kirie-chan to suffer anymore than she already has."

She seemed limp now, her eyes were half-lidded and her red and bottle-green eye was stark empty. She looked tired, under the dark shadow cast over her face. What was going on?

"Kill him now, Kirie-chan." Mukuro commanded smoothly.

Tsuna cried out, as Kiriyuu fumbled back and brought the dagger down, almost stabbing right into Tsuna's chest. This was the same situation with Fuuta! She was a mindless zombie! She was Mukuro's mindless zombie! Maybe he could get to her as he did to Fuuta previously?? But the smile on Mukuro's face worried him; it was a smile that seemed to depict the hopelessness in that tactic if he tried. Did that mean that Kiriyuu had fully submitted herself to Mukuro and was now gone…? Tsuna gawked at Reborn for help; the toddler wouldn't give any help this time, as he said before they left to Kokuyo.

Kiriyuu lashed out at him again, and Tsuna tumbled over, landing on his front on the ground. Kiriyuu neared him, holding the trident directly above her as the final blow. Her eyes seemed more alert. Tsuna gaped at her, shaking slightly. The trident then flew down, and Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut.

"NO, Kiriyuu! Don't do this!! I know you don't want to!" He yelled out, bracing himself once more.

There was a brief pause. Tsuna then felt a sharp pain on his arm. Kiriyuu had stabbed him again – but not where she was supposed to have. She was dwindling, her glazed eyes now fully- open. She was trembling, and she gritted her teeth, pulling the trident out of his flesh. He yelled in pain.

_Think!_ He frantically raked through possibilities of this circumstance. He had to break down the situation; okay, what happened?

_Attacks happen in Namimori by Kokuyo students; we go to Kokuyo, only to be attacked by Mukuro's people, and we meet Kiriyuu. She was with Mukuro too. She said he was a hostage and she was helping him. She said she was here because she had to save her cousin, Elia. But Elia said she was here to save Kiriyuu. She said she shot Kiriyuu and wanted to apologise. _

_If Kiriyuu was under Mukuro's control this whole time, then that means – Gokudera! What did she do to Gokudera-kun? And what about Hibari??? Was she was still controlled then?_

"Stop it, Kiriyuu! I know you're still there! Don't listen to Mukuro! We're your friends!" He tried desperately to free her mind. It didn't seem to exactly work. She was still going after him. Mukuro's hold on her was far stronger than he expected.

Or maybe Kiriyuu was not trying to free herself from Mukuro at all.

"Think about Hibari!! You love Hibari – "

"Not exactly." Mukuro said, and Kiriyuu suddenly stopped in her actions altogether, "… What makes you think she needs Hibari Kyouya more than she needs me?"

Tsuna looked up at him in slightly muted horror. "… Wha…What…?"

Mukuro decided not to respond; and he nodded at the girl again. She went back to stalking to Tsuna once more with both tridents.

"Root out the problem, Tsuna," Reborn called over to him, "Find the source."

The source was Mukuro. Defeating Mukuro at Tsuna's current condition was impossible. "…. Thanks for the advice(!)" Tsuna yelled back sarcastically, running to all four corners away from Kiriyuu. "Noooo! Kiriyuu! It's not your fault! It's not your fault at all!!!" He tried the same thing he did with Fuuta.

There was no response from the girl at all, and she finally cornered him; she towered over him; one of her tridents was now strapped back into the holster, the other raised and poised above his head.

"Didn't I tell you before that no matter you say to her, you can't break her free?" Mukuro said, grinning once more, "After all, the roots to all of Kiriyuu's problems all branch out in all sorts of direction. You can't possibly figure them all out."

Kiriyuu was still staring down at Tsuna; a rain of voices showering her mind. They wouldn't go away, and in turn, just emerged louder and louder in her mind.

"Kill the Vongola, Kiriyuu." Mukuro commanded coldly.

"No!" Tsuna yelled.

She continued standing dejectedly. Mukuro's voice entered her mind. _**M hasn't gone, has she?**_

_No, she's still here. How can you still…?_

_**I can communicate with you whenever I want. **_Pause._** This is our little secret.**_

Kiriyuu stopped, frozen on the spot.

_**This is M's doing, Kiriyuu. Even Hibari couldn't get rid of M's hold on you. You hold the key to get rid of M completely.**_

_**You saw it yourself.**_

_**When M shot you, she also ended up hurting herself. She doesn't realise it, because she imagined it was YOU who got shot. Not her. This is something that entirely distinguishes you from M.**_

She looked at the trident. Then at Mukuro; M had vanished completely for the time being. _You knew about M all along?_

_**M may have been a side-effect of the illusion I provided you with. M may be your alter ego. She may be your counterpart. But...**_

_How did M really come to me?_

_**You first met M when I tended to your wound, and left your room, correct? That was the night you came to me, and Elia shot you. When I provided you with the illusion to conceal your bullet wound and your scar, you drew on my power and created M immediately, by your unconscious mind.**_

_So is M __is__ an illusion! And now - _

…_**Do it, it is the only way. You know that. She cannot live without you. That is her only weakness.**_

"No, Kiriyuu, don't do it. You're our friend, Kiriyuu!"

_**Use the trident.  
Kill yourself.**_

She didn't understand the contradicting voices. Then she looked at the trident.

"Kill the Vongola." Mukuro said. _**Do it now. Or M will take over and destroy you and your friends. And I won't be able to help you.**_

Her eyes widened. The sacrifice.  
The_ ultimate_ sacrifice.

"Kiriyuu, NO! I want to save you from Mukuro!"

_**DO IT!**_

As the conflicting voices roared within her ears, Kiriyuu blanched. The racket of random voices echoed thoroughly in her mind. She whimpered out, gritting her teeth; she clutched at her head, as the voices grew and grew. There were too many voices and felt her brain would explode any minute. They were too loud; and they were hurting now. Kiriyuu tried to focus, but her senses muddled together as the voices howled, louder and louder, coursing through her mind like a train roaring through a hollow tunnel.

A thick stream of blood dripped from one nostril.

Tsuna watched on helplessly as her haemorrhage worsened; she used a hand to clutch over her nose, but the blood spilled through her fingers anyway. Her other hand was still clutching the trident.

Suddenly, an agonized, pained and strangled cry entered the distil atmosphere, and Mukuro smirked insanely - Kiriyuu had brought the trident down towards Tsuna, who was still on the ground.

"NO!"

……

……..

…………

Blood flew.

…_. ? _

Was it enough?

Did he manage to get through to her? Did he break Mukuro's control over her? He looked back up; Mukuro's eyes were widened slightly, and his smile had dropped again. The Vongola was covered in blood.

But it wasn't his.

"Kiriyuu…!?"

She gazed down at herself numbly; the hilt of a trident was sticking out of her stomach.

Mukuro smirked.

Shakily, she lifted her bloody hands from the handle and lifted them up to eye level. Blood. There was a lot of blood.

Her blood.

Kiriyuu dropped to the ground.

Tsuna gritted his teeth again, and he scampered up to Kiriyuu's body, and patted at her cheek. "Wake up!! Please be okay, Kiriyuu!" There was no reply. Tsuna inspected her hurriedly, and she was suddenly inhaling sharply and noisily, her body convulsing again in tight spasms. Her eyes rolled back into their sockets and she was muttering something. Something undecipherable. Then her eyes closed. She was quiet.

"What a shame. She won't wake up." Mukuro said. "Because of her previous fight with Hibari, she's probably dead by now."

He glared up at Mukuro, after putting Kiriyuu back down gently, and Reborn put a small hand over her head. _You did well, Kiriyuu_. Reborn thought. _Don't worry, the medic team should arrive soon._

Tsuna wasn't finished just yet. "I don't know what the relationship between you and Kiriyuu is, but – "

"She was just another toy. A marionette. It was fun while it lasted. She's so adorably naïve, _little Kiriyuu-chan_. She listened to whatever I said, and never questioned my motives. It was so easy to warp her modest, innocent, young mind."

Tsuna growled under his breath.

Suddenly, Kiriyuu's eyes yanked open.

He almost screamed. "Kiriyuu!? Y-You're okay… right? Oh god, the-the trident…"

"N-No, Tsuna, d-don't touch it." She spluttered, through shortened gasps as sweat began to drip down her temple to her cheek. She tried to smile. "I had an epiphany, Tsuna. I saw everything, and I-I did it… the sacrifice… I've saved the world…"

Tsuna didn't understand. Saving the world? What? He shook his head. "What're you…?"

She wasn't looking at him anymore. "…Heh, I hope that got rid of you for good, M…even if I have to die… I'm taking you down with me all the way to hell."

Tsuna looked around; Kiriyuu was looking at an empty space. "Kiriyuu…?"

She was murmuring something under her breath. Her eyes rolled up once more, exposing the whites like condensed fog. Kiriyuu's life didn't flash before her eyes as she thought would've happen when one was dying. Instead, she only saw M standing there, glaring. She had never seen M look so angry before.

"You... idiot!" M choked out, clutching at her bleeding stomach in agony, even her leg, face and shoulder was bleeding, and she was feeling all the pain Kiriyuu had, "...Why did you do that?!"

"You're not the dominant personality…" Kiriyuu breathed out, "….So you couldn't hurt me in the first place… _**but I could**_."

M was snarling fiercely, "Mukuro tricked you! HE KNOWS YOU'RE A THREAT TO HIM!!! AND NOW HE'S GOTTEN WHAT HE WANTED! You let him win! We were _**THIS**_ close in getting the bullet!"

Tsuna leapt when Kiriyuu yelled out her violent outburst and twitched fiercely in his lap, screaming and yelling obscenities at an alarming volume. "K-Kiriyuu?"

She wasn't listening, and then she wasn't yelling anymore either, "If it gets rid of you, M… I don't care what happens…"

Back to gibberish. He stared. Kiriyuu was having a conversation…With_ herself_.

Kiriyuu screamed, in that entirely different voice; a bellowing, thunderous voice, "You will regret this, Ottuso Kiriyuu. _I will make sure of it_."

Tsuna flinched again. "Kiriyuu!" Tsuna yelled, but she still couldn't seem to hear him.

Then –

M collapsed to the floor, in a puddle of blood.

And then Kiriyuu craned her head away from M's body to the doorway; thought she saw Hibari appearing there with this weird expression she had never seen before on his face, and Gokudera, with the cigarette falling out of his lips at the mangled sight of her. She thought seeing Hibari was normal – but why would Gokudera be there? She didn't know. All she knew was that she was probably dying. It didn't seem to hurt anymore. Her smile dropped. She groaned piteously, her head began throbbing like mad. Like as if hell had opened and was burning. She looked up and around, her distorted breathing and her smudging vision; she couldn't distinguish anything coherently anymore except from her bleak, dark surroundings, Tsuna and that usual, petrified expression he always had. His mouth was moving up and down, and he was yelling something, the corner of his eyes were blurred with tears and he was covered in some flecks of her blood. And then she looked down at herself and raised a shaking hand, to her face, where ripped flesh surfaced from Hibari's tonfa days ago when she left Namimori, and then her shoulder, where Elia had unceremoniously shot her in cold blood, and then she looked at her leg, where 'M' had supposedly shot her when it was in fact, Kiriyuu holding a gun to her own leg and pressing the trigger.

She saw it all.

_**Reality.**_

Kiriyuu let out a small, triumphant she went limp in Tsuna's arms, completely immobile.

His eyes widened tremendously at the unmoving girl. "No…" He trembled violently. "No…! Wait – Kiriyuu… _Kiriyuu?_" He shook her. She didn't move. Her mouth was slightly open. Her eyes were also still open, her green pupils seemingly locked in mid-air, frozen; trapped in a strange sense of time…

Her time had stopped.

It was… _over_…?

"… Kiriyuu?"

_No, she can't be… dead…?_

Still no response. She didn't even blink; the blood down her lips dripped onto the floor, and that was it. Nothing else.

"… Kiriyuu!!!"

"Juudaime!" Someone yelled, and Tsuna immediately whipped his head round behind him – to see Gokudera and Hibari; Gokudera was actually supporting Hibari with one arm. Tsuna's mouth couldn't move; he glanced at Hibari poignantly, then at the motionless girl in his arms, and back to Hibari.

"Gokudera-kun… Hibari-san…" Tsuna said, smothering away at his eyes, as Gokudera slumped against the doorway, since Hibari had ditched him and was now wobbling slightly towards them. Tsuna turned to Kiriyuu's body, however, and squeezed his eyes shut. "Kiriyuu… She's…. She's…" He couldn't finish the sentence.

Gokudera's stared at the sight. "Juudaime… She…"

"… She risked her life to save me." Tsuna began shakily. "Mukuro… He was… He was going to… make her s-s-stab me… b-but Kiriyuu…. she… and now… she…she…"

"… What…?" Gokudera looked astounded.

Tsuna didn't know what to do now. He didn't know what was going to happen now. He felt as if he had let her down. Heck, he _already_ had.

_It wasn't enough._ He clutched her cold body tighter, still trembling. _I didn't do enough to save her!!!_

Kiriyuu was still staring endlessly at the ceiling.

Tsuna didn't know what Hibari's reaction would be, either. He was staring at Kiriyuu's hopeless, mangled body in his arms. He just stared. As if the pool of blood and the three, mass-blood-covered punctured holes in her shirt gave anything about Kiriyuu's situation away. Would he start yelling like a madman, and swear to get revenge? Or will he be all Romeo and cry over her Juliet-'dead'-body? No. he didn't. Hibari's actual response was very calm. At first, Tsuna thought Hibari's eyes had widened to some extent than usual at the sight of her. There was an eerie silence, as he stopped looking at the unmoving figure with Tsuna in the corner, and then…

Hibari's gaze went to his feet, his eyes hidden by his bangs. Then finally, he glanced back up, at Mukuro, who had been promptly ignored for the past few minutes or so, watching the scene play with amusement. Hibari walked up to Tsuna, and Kiriyuu.

"Hibari-san – "

"Hand her over."

Tsuna manoeuvred Kiriyuu over, but Hibari didn't 'accept'. The exchange felt like a typical transaction of an item between a customer and a sales assistant.

Hibari turned back to Tsuna again, "You're in my way."

As requested, he hurriedly scampered away from the towering prefect, who was now standing beside Kiriyuu's limp body. He couldn't even exactly pinpoint what Hibari's expression was.

"… Get up." He barked coldly at Kiriyuu, who was lying on the floor.

She didn't move. Her tired eyes were glazed over, her mouth still slightly open.

"Get up."

Nothing. _Nothing at all_.

He then grabbed the front of her blazer and shook her so fiercely that her head could've practically fallen off her shoulders. "GET UP!"

Kiriyuu didn't blink. Tsuna, Reborn and Gokudera watched him silently. Mukuro looked very amused.

Tsuna bit his lip. _Hibari-san…_

He dropped her body, and she fluttered back on the ground with a 'thud', her arm bent and head to the side. He knelt down beside her, and grabbed her chin, forcing her blank, empty eyes onto his.

Kiriyuu never responded.

Hibari stared; the trident lodged in her gut. Her shredded face. The punctured leg and shoulder.

She should've gone home.

He gritted his teeth. "You really are weak and pathetic. Pointless, useless, pitiful. That fight back there was nothing. I've always wanted to kill you. But now you've lost. You lost to _**him**_. Why did it have to be him and not _**me**_?" Even though Hibari sounded extremely angry, his voice didn't show. Perhaps he was persistent enough not to show the concern he truly held towards Kiriyuu to the very end.

"Oh? You're losing your mind already?" Mukuro called over, smiling as he held his trident.

It was almost a subconscious reaction. Hibari got back up, held his tonfa tightly, facing him directly. "You…" He began, his voice treacherously low. "… Are you ready to _repent_?"

Hmm, a lot of Harry Potter references today (golden snitch, 'You-Know-Who'). Um. Sorry for the Hibari-striptease scene (well, it sort of… um…felt like one…?)

I've done a reasonable picture of Kiriyuu, am I allowed to link the URL in chapters??


	46. The Doppelganger Prophecies

Thank you for the reviews. This story really is insane xDD Hopefully, this chapter will clear up some confusion.

To be honest, I can't exactly put a face to Kiriyuu myself, so if you don't want to look at the pictures (in case they ruin anything for you), then that's okay, you don't have to. I thought you might like... er... some kind of face to put to Kiriyuu's character so I thought I'd give it a try.

Hey, you ever get that feeling that you when you do a picture, and you're really proud of it, but when you look at it again some time later, you kinda cringe and realise you could've done a better job? Yeah, I'm willing to put myself through that.

**Chapter 46**

_The Doppelganger Prophecies_

He'd previously fought with Rokudo Mukuro again. After seeing Kiriyuu's body slumped over the floor, something cracked within him, and when he had grabbed her, yelled at her, shoved her, and she still didn't wake up…. He felt… barren. Emptiness welled up inside him, and lingered. He had lived a solitary life before he met her, but this time it was… different. Something was gone, ripped away from him. Vanished, like a dying candle flame out in the wind. It was just gone. And then he'd decided that he'd let all his building, blind rage out, towards this…this someone who had took all that away from him.

He jammed a tonfa into Mukuro's stomach and then slammed both tonfas into him. He witnessed Mukuro fly into the air, blood spurting and all, and then his body landed back on the ground. He didn't move, but Hibari didn't drop his guard down yet. He just knew would never bow to that bastard ever again.

That was probably it.

The last thing Hibari could properly remember was that he had also managed to avenge her, and that annoying Sawada Tsuna squawking beside him about his injuries. Hibari couldn't care less anymore. He swayed over to Kiriyuu's body on the ground, and dropped to his knees.

He watched her softly, this porcelain doll who should've just belonged to him. Yet he'd allowed someone else to break her.

Hibari lifted her up in his arms to some extent, her head resting in the cradle of his forearm. He grabbed the hilt of the trident, that was sticking out of her stomach, and pulled it out slowly. Then he slid down, his body had tired, numbed out, froze him all over, and he could not will himself to move anymore. Hibari flopped to the ground, beside her. He was deftly paralysed.

But somehow, he knew that Kiriyuu wasn't dead.

…………………..

_Kiriyuu._

_Kiriyuu…!_

Wake up.

She opened her eyes groggily, and looked up. She was lying in a field of some sort; the wind and air was calm and serene, and she sat up, looked around.

"Kiriyuu."

It was that voice again; she looked up, and let out a cry of relief. "…. Spanner?" Then – she immediately scrabbled up on all fours. "Spanner, what are you doing here?"

"…I suppose this is your doing. You made M, so you can make me, and this rather spectacular scenery." The older man shifted slightly in his spot; he was sitting cross-legged directly in front of her on the ground, watching her from above, a piece of straw protruding from his mouth. He chewed on it, then took it out and prodded at her face with the un-chewed end. "You've changed dramatically."

She promptly threw her arms around and collapsed over his lap. "Spanner, help me! I-I'm dying! It's not working! Everything I'm doing – to save myself – it's not working out, I'm still going to die!"

He smiled awkwardly and wrapped his arms around her. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here. Don't be scared, alright? There, there." Comforting someone wasn't entirely his strong point.

She snivelled, wiping at her eyes, and then she looked up, shaking him to and fro by the sides of his arms hysterically, "D-Do something!"

"It's alright, Kiriyuu, you are doing something to keep yourself alive at the moment."

"Huh?"

"You're using illusions."

"Pffft. I hate illusions." She grabbed him firmly and shook him again, "Tell me what to do! You know what to do! You _know_ what happens to me! You have my diary and you – "

"Correction – I _**don't **_know what happens to you." He said, listing with his fingers, "I already told you, there are missing entries. You _**didn't**_ bring your diary with you – and I doubt you have time to write about current your situation right now anyway. But it looks like you have a bad case of the Crazies."

"I'm _not_ crazy!" She screamed furiously, then promptly loosened her grip around him, flopping on top of him. Her eyes concentrated onto nothing in particular, her mouth hung open and then closed, opened again, and closed once more. "…. So… _What? _There's… absolutely _nothing _in the diary? Nothing at all?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing about Mukuro…. or M?"

"Nope." He said, then he tilted his head to the side - "So you can fill me in. I want to hear it from you. Everything."

"Everything? …Where do I start?"

"…How about Mukuro Rokudo?"

Kiriyuu perked at him, and gasped, her mouth forming an 'o'. "… Well, he was at the theatre. Elia took me to see him. Mukuro was there for me. I guess…He was… He was there for me, when no-one else was. He was there. He understands me because he knows how it feels. He's been through the same thing I had. And I can relate to that. I understand him and he understands me." She looked at him helplessly. "And… And… _**I owe him**_, therefore."

"You don't owe him anything, Kiriyuu."

"He saved my life."

"No, he gave you illusions. What you're experiencing right now is also just an illusion you created, courtesy of his powers, actually. Right now, you are bleeding internally and uncontrollably in the shoulder and face, despite the illusions, you need a medic, fast."

She cocked her head at him in confusion. "…Eh?"

"When you were shot by Elia, they didn't take you to a hospital. Mukuro didn't 'heal' your shoulder. He provided you with illusions. The illusions removed the pain by tricking your mind into thinking that the wound and the pain were gone; that's the nature of illusions, obviously; they trick you, they're sly and manipulative. But the illusions were only temporary. But by doing so, by providing you illusions, he transferred some of his energy and power into you."

"Yeah, I know that – "

"However," Spanner continued, "…. You felt the pain again, didn't you? You started to lose control over your illusions in the fight against Hibari because you lost self-control. Interesting, you have the potential to wield illusions."

"…. I don't understand…"

"Kiriyuu, it's not a good idea to stay with Mukuro."

She then frowned promptly, her lip twitching fiercely, "So what? I'm not going to go back. I'm not going back to the Giglio Nero."

"But Kiriyuu – "

"I was proud, alright?!" She suddenly yelled at him, and Spanner blinked ingeniously at her in response, "I was proud to be in the Giglio Nero!! And what the hell do I get in return?! A stab in the back, that's what!!"

"…. I'm sorry, Kiriyuu."

"No." She growled at him, her voice teeming with venom, "No-one is sorry for what happened to me. _No-one._ I don't believe you anymore."

"And you believe M?"

"She's the better out of the two of us."

"Her name is Tsuzuru M, right?"

Kiriyuu slumped in her spot all of a sudden, and had seemed to have calmed down, "… Yeah. That's her name, but… I don't remember anything when I become M; all I know is that I am M, and M is me." She muttered, hiding her face in her hands.

"You're giving up already?"

She blinked.

"Kiriyuu, you're really going to admit that you were behind everything?" Spanner asked. "Even though you know M exists as a completely external, individual person to you, and that she speaks to you, tells you what to do, follows you and generally has a control of your life?"

Kiriyuu looked back down. "…I met M that night I was shot. Once he provided me with the illusion to remove the pain from the bullet and my face, I must have used his power… without even knowing, and M appeared. She spoke to me right after he left."

He nodded, "Then that means you're not M."

She laughed. "I remember… Mukuro had switched off the light after he left and then M switched back on the light. If someone was still in the room…why would he do such a thing?" She laughed once more, "… I was meant to be sleeping."

Spanner tilted his head to the side. "…. M may be part of your subconscious mind."

She looked up at him, "M said she was part of them. And I believed her. She took me around and led me, spoke to me and understood me, I really thought of her as… someone who I could count on, someone who I could share my secrets with. M came to me because of my inability to cope."

"You looked up to her, as in, role model-kind?"

"….I did, at some point. But then it all went wrong, when….Mukuro said there was no-one in Kokuyo called M, only M.M, and M.M wasn't eM. eM was… eM. I thought M was an illusion Mukuro created, but I don't think he can see her. But he sort of knew what was going on."

"What does the M stand for?"

It could've been a lot of things. Kiriyuu shook her head weakly. "I-I don't… know…"

"Why are you doing this, Kiriyuu?" He asked. She blinked at him. "What are you doing, Kiriyuu?" He said softly, and he put a hand on top of her head, ruffling her hair lightly. "Why are you listening to Mukuro? Why did you hurt yourself?"

"…. Because he told me that was the only way to get rid of M. I don't want the Forbidden bullet anymore. I want to go back home… that is… if I even have a home anymore." She looked around. They were actually in a dull field, full of rock-rigid, yellowing-golden straw. It was rather cold, and there was no sun, just grey clouds hanging ominously above them in the sky. She sat back up, facing him from opposite. She was still in her Kokuyo uniform; it was amassed in blood, particularly at her arm and stomach; she couldn't feel anything wet or squishy down her arm so she knew she wasn't bleeding anymore.

"That's not all, isn't it?"

"…His-His new world. The new order." She added wobbly, stammering slightly, "I… I want that world. I want that kind of world." She sounded unsure.

"No, Kiriyuu. You don't need that. You don't need his world." He said, and she blinked again. Not his world?? "You need your own. Not his." He confided to her, with a nod of his blonde head.

"No, it has to be Mukuro."

"But why? Why do you believe in him so much?" He said, "… You're not being completely controlled by Mukuro, that's for sure." He realised there was something wrong with her.

"I don't care if he's controlling me or not. What about M?"

"Yes, her too. People are seeing your circumstance with M differently. Mukuro communicated with you through his powers, commanding you to stab yourself so you'd get rid of M though it'd look like you are still on the Vongola's side. That means, M may be merely an illusion designed to manipulate you into thinking that you - "

"What? That I have a split personality? Why not? It's not impossible."

"Didn't you once think properly about what Mukuro said?"

"What do you mean?"

"It seems to me that you unconsciously drew on his power. You used his power, and M appeared. You are competent of using illusions. Wouldn't you think that Mukuro would've believed that you are, in fact, a **threat to him**, and to his plans?"

Kiriyuu thought; then realised that he was ultimately correct, and looked ashamed at herself once more, "I…I didn't think of it that way." She mumbled out. "M did, though. She's smart. She can pick up these little things."

"You don't need M, or Mukuro." Spanner told her, "You're just You, Kiriyuu. And no-one can take that away. You're just as good as M is."

Kiriyuu looked back down at her cold and clammy hands. "No, I'm not. She hates me now. In fact, I know she's hated me all the time."

"No, that's you. You hate yourself. You can't accept yourself for the way you are. You blamed yourself for what happened to you in the future. You hated yourself for being… weak. You have to be more confident and trusting towards yourself." Spanner said, "And M…. she's made it look as if you did everything that's happened on your accord, from the very beginning after Elia shot you, until you realised that you and M are the same person. 'You' went with Ken and Chikusa when they went to hunt your friends from Namimori. 'You' listened to Mukuro and what he told 'you' to do – 'you' deliberately lured Hibari to the Health Land. But that really was M, not you."

Kiriyuu bit her lip, looked away immediately. "M said that we were partners in crime. I'm just as guilty as she is."

"Hold on," Spanner said, "When you were back in Kokuyo, you reverted back to yourself, and M wasn't taking over. She tells you Mukuro has orders for you to stay in your room – which you find out that M made up – Mukuro already had orders, but M took them, not you. So you don't know what the plans were. M then knocks you out – in which, she takes over you again, right?"

Kiriyuu nodded.

"M – ie,** '**you' – 'You' lured Tsuna and the others, too. 'You' hurt Yamamoto in the arm; he probably doesn't realise but 'you' did. 'You' let Ken fight Yamamoto. When M returns, you're back to yourself, and this time, and you can't find M anywhere. Then you turn back to M without even knowing, and join Mukuro, who uses Fuuta to lure Tsuna into bumping into you (M) and him at the forest, which was part of the plan, too."

She looked to the side. "…Yeah…?"

"But then you realised that you and M are different people yet inhabiting the same body. So that means you were conscious of your decisions then."

Kiriyuu remained quiet.

"When Tsuna and the others finally went into the building, M confronted them as 'you', as their friend, but then 'you' went against Gokudera and aided Chikusa and Ken. And when Hibari was discovered, 'you' went against Chikusa and Ken just to get a piece of Hibari."

She looked up. "No… M wanted to see if Chikusa and Ken had the Forbidden bullet."

"Why?"

"…_Why_?" She began slowly, "The Forbidden bullet?"

"Yes."

"…We can use it to control everyone."

"No, Kiriyuu. M has bad intentions. She wants it for her own selfish reasons – "

"I DON'T KNOW IF I'M KIRIYUU OR M ANYMORE!" She suddenly yelled at him. "… I really, really don't know who I am!!! What I'm really like… what I am like… I don't know!! If M is meant to reflect my insecurities and anxiety and my desire to overcome them, then that must mean M's selfish reasons are secretly _**mine**_. M is just acting on them, like impulse. She doesn't know where it comes from, but she just knows that she has them, and she'll do anything to accomplish them!!! So what's the difference between me, and M?! What's the difference, huh? I'm just as guilty as she is!"

Spanner calmed her down. "… You believe her now, more than Mukuro's 'New World' thing?" He asked curiously.

Kiriyuu nodded, then shook her head, then nodded again. She was getting dizzy with so much head-motion.

"You're confused, Kiriyuu. You can't go on like this." Spanner replied, crossing his arms again, "So is M. She doesn't know what she really wants, neither do you."

Suddenly, Kiriyuu's expression altered – and she looked back up abruptly, her lips pulling back into a wide grin, and she laughed, a mirthless, cold laugh. No, this was M, not Kiriyuu. "You're wrong…" She drawled at him.

Spanner could see why Kiriyuu listened to M. Her voice was seductive. So this is who Kiriyuu becomes in the future.

A sultry smile was plastered over her face, "…Fine, I'll tell you something you might be interested in, Spanner-san. You're right. I'm actually not even being controlled by M. You know who M is, who M _really_ is?"

Spanner narrowed his eyes. "That's you, _**M**_, isn't it?"

"M… She is… who Kiriyuu want to be," M replied softly, tilting her head back and holding her arms out aloofly, "She is what everyone wants her to be. But most importantly… She is Kiriyuu's **EXCUSE**. M is her excuse, to give herself an entirely different identity, go on a rampage, go against her friends, double cross everyone, even Mukuro, and the one she likes so much, Hibari Kyouya, and do whatever she liked, do whatever the unfortunate person named Ottuso Kiriyuu couldn't do and NOT TAKE THE BLAME. Kiriyuu is wrapped in chains, Spanner-san, limited by rules and her own stupid morals. But not M, no, not M."

Spanner listened intently, moving his head to the side, as if he was trying to figure out M. She was different than Kiriyuu; a completely different person.

"M is free to do whatever she wants. Her only boundary of complete control is the fact that she is using Kiriyuu's body. But once she has the _**Forbidden bullet**_… then that's not much of a problem anymore now… is it?"

"You're a very cunning person, M, if that even is your real name."

"I am whatever you want to call me. Kiriyuu calls me M. I'm probably not even the only one she has. She might have other ones before me. Who knows how deranged she actually is?" She leaned towards Spanner and pulled out the piece of straw he was nibbling at, then tossed it aside, and sat back down in her spot.

"Let me speak to Kiriyuu." He said calmly.

"No, you can talk to me."

"I have no business with you, M."

M smirked once more and shrugged helplessly, "…Fine, since you asked so nicely, _Spanner-san_." She said with a mocking sneer, "But just to let you know, you took part in the experiment you submitted Kiriyuu to, and you also turned her into what she is today. You just wait. I'll get you one day too."

"Very well, M, I will wait for you."

Then Kiriyuu's face shifted entirely – changing again, warping and contorting – and she opened her eyes, blinked at him, and sighed, put a hand to her sweaty forehead. She was breathing heavily, "M took over me for a second, didn't she? …. Mukuro lied. I didn't get rid of her after all."

Spanner looked down; Kiriyuu was back to normal. "…I'm sorry, Kiriyuu. M wants the Forbidden bullet to get possess a different body. By doing so, she'll be free from you and allowed to do whatever she wants."

Kiriyuu gawked at him, staring wide-eyed. "…But the effect is temporary, right?" She asked nervously. "Right??"

"…There are ways to prolong the effects of special bullets, Kiriyuu. It's up to the right person to discover them."

"I can't let that happen - "

"….M said she is your excuse. Your excuse to do whatever you wanted. Like… kill someone."

She gasped. "NO! M is real and she – "

"I know she isn't your excuse. She is someone who has borrowed your body to do terrible deeds. But…" Spanner said, and he sighed, "…Can you take the responsibility? Can you… handle the responsibility?"

"Responsibility?"

"…Not everyone will believe that M is a split personality of you, let alone an illusion that has harboured within you, Kiriyuu. You won't be able to get away with it. What M has done, will have repercussions on _**you**_."

Kiriyuu bit her lip, feeling as though she was going to cry again. "…That means there is no difference between me or M."

"…Not entirely. How old is M?"

She shrugged. "M doesn't have an age."

"There is also something else I have to tell you."

"What?"

"…I've realised that M is exactly who you become, ten years from now."

"Huh? You mean my TYL self really is… "

"M must've taken over you completely after this. You succumbed to her. She removed you out of existence. Out of the two personalities, M seems to be the dominant one at some point. You have to stop her." Spanner replied, looking at her squarely in the air with his hands on his knees, still sitting Indian style opposite Kiriyuu, "…. Don't do this to yourself, Kiriyuu. Stop M. Only you can do it."

……………..

When Kiriyuu re-opened her eyes, she was unfortunately, M, and still in Kokuyo, with a punctured stomach, a bullet wound to her shoulder and leg, and a scar. Hibari wasn't lying beside her anymore, but just a few feet away. The only good thing he did was rid her of the trident that had been stuck inside her. She was also amidst a battle between Mukuro, Chikusa, Ken, Gokudera and Bianchi, and Tsuna. But there was something wrong with the latter apart from Tsuna and Mukuro. For once, Mukuro was lying on the floor, with a bleeding foreground, a gun near his unmoving body. _Near her, _from where she lay_._

_Mukuro has been defeated…?_

Chikusa and Ken were fighting against Tsuna, yes, but what was weird was that Gokudera and Bianchi were…. Also going against Tsuna, too. What was going on?? A bright light suddenly appeared from above, and M tried to shift in her spot to get a better look; but all she received was a fierce jolt of pain rushing through her entire body and she slumped, wincing silently in agony as her stomach felt the brunt of it. Experiencing someone else's pain was very tiring and infuriating.

_Kiriyuu…. Once I have my own body, I'm going to kill you first…_

"Even at the end, you guys are just so amusing." She looked up at the sound of the voice; it was Ken who had spoke, but when M squinted her eyes, she realised there was something wrong; for once, Mukuro had controlled him.

_**M, how nice of you to join us in person. I don't believe we've properly met.**_

…_Mukuro._

_**Kiriyuu told me about you. She doesn't like you.**_

_Oh yeah? Well, I don't like her either._

M needed the Forbidden bullet. But judging by the scenario, Mukuro had already shot himself with the Forbidden bullet. She didn't know if there was more than one, however. She crawled her way up to Mukuro's body, blood trailing behind her. She pulled the gun along with her, too, and her tridents, hovered the blade above his closed eyes, his neck. She grinned.

_**M, what is it that you desire so badly?**_

She chuckled; what an interesting 'hostage' situation. The blade hovered above Mukuro's neck dangerously.

_I want…. I want my own GODDAMN BODY._

_**You may intimidate Kiriyuu, but you don't intimidate me.**_

_And now that I have __your__ body, I can do all sorts of things that will hurt you. I also know your source of power. I'm going to gouge that delicate little eyeball of yours out… the one with those six marvellous skills… if you tell me this one thing…_

"Eeeeek!" Tsuna shrieked, and M turned, glanced over at the poor, defenceless boy. He threw his woollen-mitt covered hand in front of himself to block Ken's attack as a trident came stabbing towards him; the trident connected with something hard and Tsuna bounded back, surprisingly unharmed.

"He repelled the attack?!" Ken/Mukuro exclaimed furiously, as Tsuna scrabbled back up from the ground.

He took off his mitt to see what had blocked the attack – a bullet dropped out. "Pass it here, Tsuna!" Reborn quickly commanded, and Tsuna perked up.

M smirked, breathing heavily. Her stomach hurt, and her breath was shortening. _Let's play a game, Mukuro._

…_**. What kind of game? **_Mukuro was never threatened. Or blackmailed.

_The first one to eradicate the Vongola will win. Then it will be just the two of us, with no-one to get n our way, and I __will__ get that bullet._

"I'm not going to let you shoot it!" Ken/Mukuro made another stabbing attack towards Reborn's direction, while a Bianchi/Mukuro grabbed Reborn by the arm as he avoided Ken/Mukuro's attack.

But then Reborn's arm turned green and blobby and squishy, and – turned into Leon. The real Reborn leapt towards Tsuna, and grabbed the bullet off him. "Got it."

"That's not going to happen," a Gokudera/Mukuro said, as bombs flew towards Tsuna's direction. "What I said about collecting your body unharmed, tenth Vongola? Forget that!"

As the explosion of bombs went off, completely ricocheting everyone off the ground – M saw Reborn inserting the bullet inside his gun – and she did the first thing that came into mind - she looked at the gun lying just a few centimetres from her, and she reached for it. Everything that was supposed to have happened in approximately 0.05 seconds went into slow motion –

Reborn aimed the gun. She aimed her gun.

_**BLAM!**_

He fired.

M fired at the same time.

Her bullet went flying towards Reborn's bullet and –

- Completely knocked it off course. A small spark of light emitted in mid-air, as the bullets collided gracefully with another, the blunt, arrow-shaped head of M's bullet smashed with the other and crumpled up into a heap, the metal coat exploded into tiny fragments, a lethal mingle of blackened gun powder, and broken fragments.

Then a silence.

The bullets dropped to the floor in a tinny clatter, like pins dropping.

Everything went back into fast motion again, and M stared, as the broken bullet suddenly turned into a squishy thing called Leon. The real Reborn had already fired the gun. _Hmph. But Mukuro doesn't have to know about that, does he? _M thought, and she felt the rest of her strength drain away. It was too much. She couldn't keep up. Damn Kiriyuu. Damn Kiriyuu and her stupid body.

"You got him." Bianchi/Mukuro said, as the dust withered away, and there lay Tsuna, sprawled on the ground, covered in black soot and small flecks of blood and dirt. "My, my, he's seriously injured now. There doesn't seem to be any effects from the bullet. Even the special bullet has failed, huh?"

M and Reborn watched on wordlessly.

"That's all then…the finale came too quickly. Come, let's possess this body while it still has breath."

M stared on silently. _….Tsuna?_

He wasn't moving. He was listening; his thoughts echoing thoroughly in his own mind. It hurts, he thought. He hurt all over. He was about to die, right? That's okay, that's all he could do. He couldn't do anymore. It was too much. The pain… the fear… he could his mother all of a sudden in his thoughts; she was yattering on about his untidy room… and then that annoying friend of Kyoko… Kurokawa or something… quite right, he thought, her name suited her well. Made her sound like a crow, well, mainly because she resembled him of one. Her name also sounded like a noise a crow would make, those weird squawking noises, yes, that's right… Kurokawa was looking at his Japanese test… he scored only 2 points…

Was this… a special effect from the bullet Reborn fired?

"What you're experiencing now in real-time," a familiar voice said, and he looked up slightly; it was Reborn (no surprise there), "what you're hearing now… is rebukes."

"R-Rebukes?? Why at a time like this?? Like as if Tsuna wanted to be reminded that he was No-Good Tsuna again.

Next, he heard Haru's voice. She was with I-Pin and Lambo. Don't give up, she said. Next, it was Ryohei, still at the clinic. That's right, Tsuna fought Ryohei and he won. Ryohei knew he was strong, and he said he would never forgive him if Tsuna came home defeated. And then there was Kyoko. She wanted Tsuna would come back safe and sound. Then –

Kiriyuu.

She was still alive. She was still here.

_Tsuna, you're not alone. I believe you can defeat Mukuro._ He heard her thoughts, and looked at her with his mouth hanging open slightly. She nodded at him; she was lying beside Mukuro's body. _That Forbidden bullet is dangerous, and he may have more. _

_You must get rid of Mukuro._

The next voice entered his voice: Lanchia, the fake Mukuro who ended up slaughtering his whole family under Mukuro's control. "Don't repeat the same mistake I did," Lanchia said, "With your own hands… Protect your family."

"My rebukes don't have to be said, right?" Reborn replied.

Tsuna opened his eyes.

A controlled Chikusa/Mukuro stood before him. "Oho, at a time like this, you still have spirit in your eyes? But it's still time to end the show. If you die here, it'll be problematic for me!!" He yelled, before bringing down the trident, but then –

The trident stopped.

Mukuro looked at the trident; Tsuna's hand was gripped over one of the smaller, lesser blades. He was wearing the glove – which began to glow, a bright, soothing warm light. "_**What - ?!**_" Mukuro exclaimed, as the glove soon began to change form; it was something he had never seen before, and the trident blade broke under his grip, as Tsuna got back up.

"…Mukuro… if I don't defeat you…" Tsuna began slowly, "Even if I'm dying… I will _**not**_ give up."

* * *

Here are the picture(s) as promised. So far, my only fans consist of my family and friends xDD I really don't draw a lot, nor do I colour a lot, or have a lot of colours. Once again, I think they're reasonable pictures.

Obviously you put a (.) where it says (dot) and remove the spaces. All the pictures contain a Kiriyuu who **do not have a scar**; I did draw a scar and she looked HORRIBLE. It just ruined the entire picture. Also, they're pretty much TYL-applicable. So yeah, Hibari did ruin her looks :o

* * *

**Picture 1: **

An older, messy, black and white picture of 'Kiriyuu' I did quite some time ago. It's Kiriyuu treefroggy-style and I didn't put much effort into it. Again, it's reasonable, not great D:

http://i58 (dot) photobucket(dot)com/albums/g266/keroppii114/k1 (dot) jpg

* * *

**Picture 2: **

A coloured picture of 'Kiriyuu' done by markers. I'm so bad at using them D: I find them difficult to use (and expensive!) and I was too scared to experiment or I'd risk ruining everything (and her hair took a long time). The paper bled everywhere and it was a nightmare. In this picture, she looks different (compared to picture 1), and slightly mean D:

http://i58 (dot) photobucket (dot) com/albums/g266/keroppii114/flipped (dot) jpg


	47. Tsuna vs Mukuro vs Kiriyuu

It's the end to the Mukuro saga!

**Chapter 47**

_Tsuna vs. Mukuro vs. Kiriyuu _

"Are you done warming up yet?" Tsuna asked; he really didn't, well… exactly 'feel' anything of the special bullet Reborn had shot at him. His muscles loosened, surprisingly relaxed, unlike whenever he was shot by the Dying Will bullet. Perhaps, if he could describe the sensation by experience, Tsuna could say he felt like he was sitting butt-naked in some kind of ice-cube bath, and he just felt… tranquil and at ease, chilled, obviously. The blessing of this Special Shot was phenomenal; he'd also successfully thwarted several of Rokudo Mukuro's attempts to fully assault him and for once, Tsuna felt in control of situations. Meanwhile, Kiriyuu was still lying on the ground, seeping in and out of unconsciousness.

"Kuhahaha!" Mukuro laughed, as the blood that had poured from his eye dribbled down to his chin; Tsuna did not let his guard down. "All of this is a delightful miscalculation. If I can get your body, I won't even need to gather resources to cause a conflict within the mafia because I can directly barge into the family."

"So, your goal is a conflict within the mafia." Reborn deducted.

"Kufufu… No way…I'm not petty like that." Mukuro replied, with a cruel sneer, "I plan to possess the VIPs from all over the world soon. Then I'll control them and change this ugly world – into a pure and beautiful sea of blood."

Tsuna and Reborn watched mutely.

"A world war…" Mukuro then murmured languidly, as his gaze moved to Kiriyuu… M, actually, "…Does that sound too fake… too… pretentious and exaggerated?"

She was listening. _A world…war?_

"But the first has got to be the _**mafia**_. The total and complete annihilation of the mafia." Mukuro finished, a smile starting to play on his lips again.

"Why are you so fixated on the mafia?" Reborn asked inquisitively.

"A grudge?" Tsuna chided in, they were starting to build a bigger picture of Mukuro's plan.

Mukuro Rokudo escapes from a prison in Italy with his acquaintances and arrives at Namimori, Japan to attack the Vongola. Along the way, news of his conscription to build an army for his goals reached to Ottuso Kiriyuu, a Giglio Nero mafia member who happened to be unintentionally harbouring an extreme dislike to her family due to unknown reasons.

"Oh, I don't plan to talk any further." Mukuro replied instead, "You will become a part of me when I'm in my ultimate form. Just watch - !"

And then – an illusion of Mukuro – a dangerous shadow of him, a dark shadow of his former self, burst forth and rushed towards Tsuna at an insane speed, who merely stood still on his spot; it was fake, it wasn't real. "An illusion…" He murmured, but then –

M was holding stones.

Tsuna winced as the illusion passed, but the stones got him fully in the face, and he cried out, as one got him in the eye. "He was hiding stones within the illusion. Underestimating things as usual, Tsuna." Reborn said, shaking his head a little.

No-one had noticed that M was the one who threw the stones.

"I got you now!!!" Mukuro smirked, as he swiftly rushed towards Tsuna from above with his trident spear, and Tsuna had to quickly recover or else he'll get hurt – he blocked Mukuro's attack and rounded from behind – Tsuna landed the clean punch to Mukuro, and he went flying. He crashed to the ground, and Tsuna landed shortly in front of him, unharmed.

"Urgh… Kufufu…" Mukuro spat out some blood while trying to grin, "So this is the Vongola. The man who will defeat me."

Tsuna watched on impassively.

"Kill me." He spat out, his eyebrows knitting into a tight frown, "…If I were to be caught by you mafia, I would rather **die**."

Tsuna watched him. Even though Mukuro had been targeting his friends, Tsuna… suddenly felt sympathy for him. He looked away from the sight of Mukuro on the floor, "….I can't do that."

Mukuro grinned. _Yes, that's right, Vongola, let your unnecessary compassion and consideration cloud your eyes and release all the naivety you hold. _

Tsuna perked up; and he turned round – Kiriyuu slashed at him with her trident, and he avoided her attack quickly. "Kiriyuu…"

"… No, not Kiriyuu." She snarled back.

Tsuna could see through instantly; she looked the same the day she left – just when Hibari scarred her – and that had been at least a few days ago, but she also had a wound on her shoulder which was now a wet splatter of dark red blood over the green blazer - and he further realised the cruelty of Mukuro inflicted on her.

Kiriyuu was hurt.

_He never took her to a hospital._

But this wasn't Kiriyuu, maybe a look-alike of Kiriyuu, or so he thought – it was the same girl who had been with Mukuro when he got lost in the forest – and this was the one who had been co-operating with Mukuro all along. Not Kiriyuu. Kiriyuu was the victim. Her aura; it was just like Mukuro's aura – a black, viscous energy that surrounded her entire being, glowing and lashing out ferociously. She had been under his influence for too long. Saving Kiriyuu would be harder, especially if her problems were rooted so deeply in all sorts of directions.

"Don't you harm him," She growled at Tsuna fiercely, her left eye gleaming red deafeningly. Blood was dripping down her arm and the slashed cheek but she didn't seem to notice at all, "Don't you dare touch him." I _still need that goddamn bullet. But there probably isn't any left…_

"What have you done to her, Mukuro?"

"I… didn't do anything… _much_." He chuckled at him from the ground, "This is the doing of Kiriyuu's counterpart."

Tsuna focused onto Kiriyuu… or M. "I can see her aura."

"She has been under Mukuro's influence for far too long." Reborn replied. "It has consumed her entirely."

"Is Kiriyuu being controlled by Mukuro??"

"….Yes… and No." Reborn said, "She's being controlled by somebody else, AND Mukuro."

Tsuna was horrified to have heard that.

"Kuhahaha!" Mukuro laughed again, although it came out a little weaker than usual, "I still have one more devotee. Kiriyuu, Kiriyuu, little Kirie-chan. She is the most faithful and loyal out of them all. I'd like to see you try and hurt her."

"No, Kiriyuu – "

"Kiriyuu's not listening! She's through with listening to anyone!" M/Kiriyuu screamed, a little hysterically, "**I** make my own rules, and decide MY own decisions!!" She swiped at him again; Tsuna evaded her attack easily and caught hold of her trident blade. She stepped back in surprise, as he melted it effortlessly.

"….The mafia are vermin," She hissed, "Stuck in their own stupid morals, principles and fickle rules. Chessboard games, black and white, one family and another family, the king and all his pawns, sweeping one after the other. Bloodshed and tyranny, and all for what? Power. Power and control. They want everything, everything they can get their hands on for power. They're going to drown in their sins and I'll be watching." She made another attempt to stab him.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He retorted calmly as he evaded, realising the situation he was now in. It was either hurt Kiriyuu or let herself wear out, "You've been hurt enough."

There was a slight pause. She had faltered slightly. "…What do you know?" She said, snarling slightly at him as her lips pulled back into a growl, "What the hell do you know?! You're the goddamn boss of the Vongola! What troubles could you possibly have?! Everyone listens to you, you can tell them what to do. You can do whatever the hell you want!"

"NO, Kiriyuu. I may be the Vongola boss, but - "

"But what?!"

_Think, _he thought. What did Kiriyuu tell him the day before she disappeared? Nothing much. She just said she had to leave. Something… something she didn't want to be part of… something about Hibari, something that revolved around Hibari… which she couldn't tell the Vongola. Something that concerned her family, Hibari and the Vongola, obviously. What was the link between them all? He couldn't find it out. He didn't know.

"Stop it, Kiriyuu. I know you're still there. Don't listen to Mukuro. We're your friends." He tried desperately to free her mind. It didn't seem to exactly work. She was still going after him. Mukuro's hold on her was stronger than he expected. Or maybe Kiriyuu really was not trying to get free herself. "We can do it together, Kiriyuu. You're feeling alone, and scared, helpless. And right now, Mukuro… " Tsuna froze, his eyes wide. Mukuro said he was going to annihilate the mafia. "Mukuro….Mukuro is opening up a door of opportunities for you. He's offering you a ticket out of the mess you're in. That's it, isn't it? That's what you want, isn't it, Kiriyuu?"

She hesitated. He continued.

"But that's not the right door. That's not the right way he's leading you towards. It's a trap. I don't know how you know him… and how well you know him, but I know you don't appreciate him controlling you with his mind… or if this person called M is controlling your mind. Decide for yourself, Kiriyuu. Decide what you want for yourself for once."

The girl had now completely halted, bent on listening to what he had to say intently.

He continued, "I don't know who M is, but it looks like she's making you do a lot of things you don't want to do. Don't submit to her. She's not right, and no matter what she says, you are always in control."

Her tense shoulders loosened up somewhat.

He realised she was angry. She was bitter and furious; she was full of hatred, resentment and anger that it had consumed her entirely. Tsuna continued firing words. "But to let you know, it doesn't matter what happens - Think about all the times you and our friends shared together. You enjoyed hanging around with us and you were getting along with us."

Mukuro yawned as he watched this amusing scene. "How touching."

Tsuna continued, bent on getting around to the girl. The annihilation of the mafia. Kiriyuu was part of the Giglio Nero… there was no clear reason why she would go against the Vongola, so she must be going against the Giglio Nero, her own family…

"I know how you feel. You're part of the Giglio Nero but they've done something and… and…." He waited for her to talk.

She seemed to catch on, murmuring under her breath, droning. "…They betrayed me." She muttered at him, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, "They… meant everything to me. I was proud. I served them. They are my… family."

Then –

"_I HATE THEM!!!_" She suddenly screamed gratingly, her tone crawling with immense hatred, "I HATE THEM FOR WHAT THEY DID TO ME. THEY RUINED ME. THEY DESTROYED ME. _THEY ALL DESERVE TO __**DIE **__JUST LIKE I DO IN TEN YEARS TIME!! I'LL KILL THEM ALL!!!_"

Tsuna immediately swerved his head to Reborn, and in response, the toddler nodded. Tsuna's theory about TYL Kiriyuu was confirmed, and he turned back to Kiriyuu. _Somehow… the Giglio Nero was, maybe in some parts, responsible for the death of Kiriyuu ten years later…_He understood now. The Giglio Nero was the world to Kiriyuu. Her entire family must be part of the Giglio Nero as well, and if she didn't want to be part of the family, then… she would have nowhere to go, and she was scared. She felt abandoned. Kiriyuu wasn't like Tsuna; she had no-one if she decided to leave. She would be alone. She didn't deserve it. The thought of that fact made him feel an overwhelming sensation of sympathy towards her, too.

"I see, so they have betrayed your trust, and – "

"Shut up!" Kiriyuu yelled, breathing heavily, "YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING – "

He tried to calm her down, "… You don't want to be part of the mafia just as much as I do… Now you don't know where to go. And now you don't know how being in a family is supposed to feel, but you DO know deep down, because…" Tsuna paused then, taking a deep breath.

Kiriyuu waited. Tsuna looked back up at her, his expression softened.

"…. You're with us now."

She was listening. Kiriyuu looked at him. Two realities blurred again. There was one where she was seeing through M's eyes, and then there was one, where she was seeing through her own eyes. Just like when she was fighting Hibari. She thought. What's happening to M? She couldn't hear her voice anymore. In fact, M… had completely vanished again, but this time, it felt like…. M was gone for good. Perhaps.

He glanced at Reborn again for an answer – the infant nodded once more. It probably meant two things: Tsuna had gotten through to Kiriyuu, and he had the power to help her. Tsuna glimpsed at Kiriyuu briefly. Her eyes were still glazed, but tears had formed and were now running down her cheeks like mini rivulets. "…_**You**_ won't betray us…because… because… " He then said instead, squeezing his eyes shut. "Because…."

What was it? What was Kiriyuu to the Vongola? How did he know that she was still their friend deep inside? How was he so sure that she wouldn't do anything to hurt them?

He opened his eyes again. He had the answer.

"… I trust you."

Kiriyuu blinked at him.

"I trust you." Tsuna began again, with much more confidence. "I trust Kiriyuu."

There was a long silence.

"And you're part of our family now. We're not like the Giglio Nero."

Kiriyuu stiffened immediately. _That doesn't even matter. Vongola, Giglio Nero, whatever_. _Am I…M…? O-Or…Kiriyuu…. I…don't know… anymore._

"….Tsuna…" She suddenly uttered out, very slowly, her face began to regain more colour. Her grip loosened on her trident, and she stepped back. Mukuro raised an eyebrow, his fingers clenching tightly as he frowned thoroughly.

Tsuna looked up at her; Kiriyuu had always been part of the family all along… His expression further softened, "I'm sorry you felt as though you were alone… and you felt as though no-one could help you. I'm… I'm sorry you had to go through that by yourself."

She flinched slightly.

"I'm sorry about what happened between you and Hibari." He squeezed his eyes shut again. "… I remember you told me that before… that you didn't know how it felt to be part of a family, but now you **do** -- You're meant to be a Vongola, Kiriyuu. You like Hibari. You like Reborn, Yamamoto, Gokudera, Ryohei… and me. You're our friend, _our _family… You'll never be alone, and-and… whatever happens…. We'll … _We will always be there for you_."

Her eyes widened temporarily.

"And… M…"

"…M?" Kiriyuu muttered back hazily, like a zombie, "M… is… _perfect_. She is everything… I… want to be. She is everything everyone… wants her to be. She is what Mukuro wants to be. She… is the new world."

"No, you're wrong."

"….?"

"You're Ottuso Kiriyuu, not M. This is… You." He replied, "You're not M."

Kiriyuu blinked back tears. "I made her, Tsuna. Tsuzuru M is basically me. She was born from all my negativity. She is a cruel person. I'm a cruel person."

"No, she's not you – yes, M isn't a nice person, but it doesn't mean you're like that. Don't listen to her. Don't let her take over. Maybe she was… she was someone you looked up to, she was strong and could cope with the stress you were feeling, and someone who listened to your problems and consoled you, but at the same time, she still had all these scheming plans and…and… they weren't the right thing to do."

She blinked slowly at him.

"No more revenge, Kiriyuu." He said, "It's not worth it."

"…Tsuna." She murmured out once more, and lowered her remaining trident.

"You have to learn to let go, Kiriyuu. Don't hang onto things that have happened in the past."

"But, Tsuna -- Isn't it…isn't it also better… if I am M? M is the better of the two of us… she IS smart… she IS strong… everything I want to be. I… We-We did it together!!! Everything! We led Hibari here. We led you here, we fought Gokudera and Hibari! We…We - "

"No, not 'we'. **You** would never do that to us. M would, but you're not M…..but whoever you really want to be…. that's up to you, but Kiriyuu is our friend, and we like her exactly the way she is. She doesn't have to be smart or strong just to be our friend – "

She interrupted him promptly, looking lost, and scared, like a little child now, and tears rolled down from her eyes, "…I'm… What I… Everything that's happened...I'm…I think…M… is an excuse, Tsuna. She was… my excuse."

"Excuse?"

She cried, "….Everything is… blurring together, Tsuna. I… I can't tell the difference. The experiences…back when I… was in the Giglio Nero, in…Italy… and then all the experiences when… I went to Namimori…. I…. changed. Somehow…. They both merged together… I… don't know who… or if M's personality… is **who I really am** inside… and Kiriyuu…. is just… oh, _I just don't know anymore_..!" She sobbed helplessly.

"It's alright, Kiriyuu. You only have one name, that is Ottuso Kiriyuu. Not M, Tsuzuru M. Just Kiriyuu." Tsuna replied, as she stared limply at the floor, and Tsuna put down his guard.

She looked back up. Tsuna could see that her eyes were now exactly the same as Lanchia and Fuuta when they were controlled. Lost, confused… unwilling… unhappy. Kiriyuu wiped a tear from her face.

"…I'm… so sorry, Tsuna."

"It's alright. It's not your fault, it wasn't you."

"But… what about my death?" She blurted out in a monotone voice, sounding hypnotized all over again, "I'm supposed to die. I have to die. It's how the story ends. It's how I end."

"No, Kiriyuu, no-one can determine when you die, except from yourself." Tsuna said, "Do you want to die?"

She shook her head. "I… I don't want to die."

Tsuna held his breath.

Her eyes began to water, and then, Kiriyuu let out a choked sob. "All this time… I didn't want to die… I don't-I don't want to die(!)." She cried out, harder this time. She cried, and she cried, until she completely broke down on the spot, wrapping her arms thoroughly over her head, hiding her face with her hands as tears streamed out endlessly. "…I don't want to die, Tsuna…"

"We won't let you die."

She looked up slowly, questioningly, almost desperately.

He nodded, and continued, "No matter what happens, I won't let you die."

She stared at him. Tsuna knew Kiriyuu would be just fine. She was recovering; she had been recovering this whole time, and now she was getting better. Kiriyuu couldn't hear M's voice anymore. She herself had not much of an idea of what was really happening now. She knew that M took over, and fought Gokudera. But… was it M who really fought Hibari?

"….But…How can you possibly forgive me? For all the things M has… I mean, what I've done?"

"Kiriyuu, I forgive you. We forgive you." He reassured, and he smiled at her, before reaching an arm out to her. She stared at his burning X-glove, and looked back up at him, then squeaked. He chuckled, "I won't burn you. Give me your hand."

_NO, don't listen to him. He's a __liar__._

_(They're all lying)_

_They all have their dark, hidden agendas. Everyone has lied to you so far. Lies take in all sorts of forms. There are those lies used to protect people and themselves. Others are lies that you do not even realise they are lies. Then there are THOSE lies. You know what I mean. They lied, and used you to get what they want. Did they care about your 'feelings' and your welfare? NO._

_Like Mukuro._

_(Kiriyuu, everything will be okay)_

_Oh yeah? Well, everything's NOT okay._

_(Why can't they see that?)_

_No, you're wrong._

_You…. You lied to me, too, M. But Tsuna…_

_(Tsuna has never lied to me before)_

"Kiriyuu?"

She looked up again. Then she shakily lifted out her own hand towards him. She could hear M silently screaming in fury, and her arm struggled to move at some point – it was all M's doing, she realised. M didn't want her to give in that easily. But M was wrong, had been wrong all along, and Kiriyuu didn't want to succumb to her. She wouldn't let M take over, or tell her what to do anymore. M had her fun; her reign as M was over. It was back to Kiriyuu; and she wanted to take charge of her life once again.

_I'll do the right thing._

_I won't get lost on the way. _

_I won't get lost on the way anymore._

_(No more)_

Tsuna's hand, which was surrounded by fierce red flames licking over the flesh of his palm, was surprisingly cool and chilly when she slowly put the tips of her fingers down first, followed by the rest of her hand. What a surprise; her hand was smaller than Tsuna's. She swallowed, and closed her eyes, as Tsuna's own fingers wrapped around her tiny palm tightly and clenched it tight. She felt purged; purified and cleansed. Once she re-opened her eyes, she smiled at him, and he smiled at her. Reborn, at the side, smiled at Kiriyuu, too, and she smiled back.

"…It tingles." She muttered out weakly.

"Yeah. It does."

"I feel happy."

Tsuna blinked, then – "….Me too." He turned to Reborn beside him, and smiled.

"I'm glad you're okay." Reborn said.

And then from the corner of her eyes – Mukuro had gotten up, during her conversation with Tsuna, and from behind, he was about to –

"Tsuna, look out!"

He spun on his heel, his eyes temporarily widened as Mukuro came charging at him; and then Tsuna held his arms up to shield himself – he blocked Mukuro's attack quickly. "Kiriyuu, get out of here, I'll handle Mukuro!" He yelled, but the girl stood limply beside him.

"I – "

"Oho, two against one now, is it?" Mukuro said, with a spiteful leer as his smirk temporarily widened.

"Kiriyuu, get out of here NOW!"

Mukuro grinned at her, chuckling, "I don't think so. I need to get even with you, Kirie-chan, for going against me…"

For a moment, Kiriyuu stood numbly, but then – she lifted her tridents up in an offensive stance, and she turned to Tsuna. "I'm sorry." She said, "I can't leave you behind."

"So brave," Mukuro said, frowning somewhat, "But false modesty won't get you anywhere - !"

And then suddenly, Kiriyuu gasped as Mukuro re-appeared in front of her from nowhere – it happened in a matter of moments - she immediately threw her tridents in a desperate attempt to protect herself - and the two weapons clashed. Kiriyuu stumbled backwards from the impact. But Mukuro was stronger and faster with the spear and Kiriyuu went wide-eyed with horror as he pushed down and the trident blades shattered completely under the pressure in front of her eyes and Tsuna was reaching out for her and he was yelling something but she couldn't hear and -

A hard impact had landed on her forehead, and she stared back at Mukuro with a staggered expression; blood dripped down from the crown of her head, through her hair and she blinked unfocusedly, as blood dripped down to her eyebrow, staining her eyelashes, running down her cheek. Mukuro had brought the length of the spear down on her head; the spear colliding neatly with the top of her skull.

The inevitable crack of bone echoed within the Kokuyo building - he'd fractured her skull cleanly, a crack in her forehead, identical to a small crevasse. A stellate. Immediately, Kiriyuu's vision began to give away; Mukuro split into two, then five, ten, more, and her knees collapsed beneath her, the broken trident dropped out of her hand. She stumbled slightly on the spot and toppled forwards

"NO!"

Mukuro ignored Tsuna's desperate plea and she tumbled towards the ground – but he caught her in his arms, his nose pressing against the nape of her neck. He smoothed her hair down with his hand, revelling as he closed his eyes. "Shh… The bad dream is over now. You can rest, my cute little Kirie-chan…" He let her rest over his lap as he shifted down to kneel on the ground.

She blinked slowly, looking up at him as he made her look up at him. He looked so gentle and so serene, his smile, his cool demeanour, how calm he looked, almost sympathetic, but Mukuro was incapable of sympathy or any forms of compassion; he wasn't sorry for what he did to her. She realised whatever had happened to him in his past had completely consumed him, just like the way M was. Mukuro must've been experimented on like Chikusa and Ken, she realised, and he clung onto that for the years to come. Mukuro was full of hate for the mafia; just like M. Only… M hadn't gotten to the stage Mukuro was at, yet. They managed to stop M before she could. She moved her head to the side gently and narrowed her eyes; M and Mukuro weren't that different in personality. They both had ambitions, that was for sure.

Reborn was still at the side with Tsuna - he was screaming something over and over again, but she didn't hear. Her head was closing in, smashed.

"…I…." She muttered out wobbly, and she looked at her hands again – the blood was wet, warm, and moist. She watched it drip onto the floor, and laughed weakly. "I…I would rather die than hurt Tsuna…. I won't let you hurt Tsuna… or Hibari, or anyone else …"

But then a flash of anger whipped through Mukuro, and his grip on her tightened. "You're throwing everything away – for these insignificant people?"

She smiled feebly; she had heard that. "That's what… you have to understand, Mukuro… For these… _people_… my friends… I don't care… if I die…because they're… worth it…All of it…"

"… For these people…" Mukuro suddenly muttered out, his bangs covering his eyes, casting a shadow over his eyes as well. But he was grinning, "… You are a stupid, foolish and naïve girl. You could've had everything you wanted if you had obeyed me."

"No…" She mumbled out at him. "… I wouldn't… Everything I want is here. And that is… something you could never provide me with at all."

He frowned at her, before loosening his grip, his fingers coated in her blood. What the hell did she know? His smile had completely vanished – in fact, it was replaced with another smirk, a growing smirk. He let go of her – and Kiriyuu dropped back on the ground, now completely unconscious. He chuckled, as he stroked her cheek, his fingertips pressing gently over her scar, his laughter erupting lowly from the back of his throat. He began, as he stood back up, "Kiriyuu is insane. Who would have thought? She was such an adorable girl, but now she's broken. Kufufu… She's not so innocent anymore."

"Mukuro!" Tsuna said, and suddenly, he had appeared behind Tsuna, and grabbed his arms, pulling them behind him. "Mukuro, _you -_ !"

"Oh, I know that your strange skill is due to the power of the flame on your hands." Mukuro said, "If I seal your arms, there is nothing to be afraid of." And then, Tsuna felt the back of his head crushed by the impact of Mukuro's forehead, and he flinched, with his eyes clenched shut, maybe this was how Kiriyuu felt when she was hit in the head, too. "Don't you think what a curious creature Kiriyuu is, Vongola?" Mukuro grinned, "Her dual nature even surprises me so. She can't make decisions and she changes sides a lot. She attempted to revolt against me. How foolish. Are you so sure that she wasn't lying to you, too?"

"….Her eyes…." Tsuna finally replied, "I could see it in her eyes!!"

He could now feel Mukuro's breath on his ear, and he struggled fiercely under his grip. "Do you know why I had so many assassins target you? It's so that I can possess you after you draw out your abilities. Good work. You can - " Mukuro tossed Tsuna's hapless body into the air, " – _REST NOW_!"

As he recovered partially in mid-air, he realised that Mukuro had thrown him towards the direction of a trident lodged in a crack of the wall, and Tsuna was aiming uncontrollably towards it.

Mukuro's smirk widened madly in response, "There's no way you can defend yourself in mid-air. You'll die because of that ridiculous kindness of yours."

He was right, Tsuna thought, Kiriyuu knew that being ridiculous kind and generous got you nowhere in the mafia, but then – "Show him the power of the X-Gloves now, Tsuna!" Reborn commanded, and in sync, Tsuna knew what he had to do.

He focused the flames behind him, portioning his arms and hands in the correct stand, propelling himself back forwards at a frightening rate.

"What?!" Mukuro snarled out in alarm.

"Tsuna is able to position himself behind you in an instead because he used the impulse of the dying will flame and moved at a rapid speed."

The next thing Mukuro knew – the Vongola was rushing towards him, and he had nowhere to go – in fact, maybe he was actually too stunned to move – and Tsuna's palm connected with Mukuro's face solidly, the flames engulfing him entirely. Mukuro resisted immediately, the hot flames burning, searing hot, like hellfire… but then… the flames slid over him gently, into a soothing, relaxing temperature, and Tsuna and Mukuro went crashing to the wall.

The dust cloud that gathered from the impact withered away a few moments later, and Reborn, who was standing beside Kiriyuu's unmoving body, squinted his tiny eyes through the mist, "…Mukuro's dark aura has been purified." He said, and he turned to Kiriyuu, and put a small hand over her crushed forehead.

"Kiriyuu's dark aura has been purified, too."

Amidst the broken battlefield, Tsuna leant off Mukuro, his expression impassive and emotionless. Mukuro looked at peace; he hadn't killed Mukuro. But he was unconscious for good. At least it was over; the trident that Tsuna should've smashed into disintegrated immediately, and he knew. It really was over. He stood back up and sighed, closed his eyes as he let his arms dangle limply at the sides. Then -

"Don't you _**dare **_touch Mukuro-sama!" came a few estranged voices, and Tsuna and Reborn turned to them.

It was Mukuro's two henchmen – the ones named Ken and Chikusa, who were now fully conscious and on the floor, crawling towards their direction; they looked in extremely bad shape.

"… Why do you care so much for Mukuro?" Tsuna asked.

"Don't you talk as if you know anything!" Ken growled at him furiously; Tsuna could feel it – the venom in his voice, those furrowed eyebrows and the hate burning in his eyes. They _really _hated the mafia. Ken's lips suddenly pulled back into an obscene grin, "For us, this is nothing, pyon. Compared to our suffering back then. We were guinea pigs for human testing by our own family. Thanks to that, our family members were labelled as brutes and were horribly persecuted by other mafia. Guns were pointed at us and we were killed like bugs."

Ken then turned to Kiriyuu, who was still lying beside Reborn completely unconscious. "Your little friend. She must've been used by her own family some way or another…"

Chikusa was speaking now, though his usually quiet voice was rendered into even more silent gasps and grunts, "Everyday was hell. No matter where we go, how much we struggle. There was no way for us to live."

"And then one day. …All by himself… He destroyed that miserable life." Ken finished, "He was quiet… and not the kind who stood out. I think that was the first time I heard his voice. We all heard it. Even Kiriyuu."

_Kufufu…. Just as I thought, this world isn't worth it. _

_Let's erase it all…_

Ken closed his eyes shut tightly.

_Shall we go together?_

"And for the first time… there was a place for us to go." He continued, breathing heavily as blood poured out from the corner of his mouth. "… We can't have you destroy that!!"

Tsuna listened; though he could fully sympathise with their situation and background… Tsuna still understood the fact that what they were doing was still unforgivable. "…That's the place I want to go too." He replied softly.

Suddenly, the distil atmosphere was shattered when collars snapped around Ken and Chikusa's neck, and Mukuro too. "Is-Is that the medic team?!" Tsuna squawked, but as the new crowd of people arrived (seemingly from nowhere), he realised it wasn't.

"The Vindice, or the Vendicare." Reborn said, as Tsuna gaped on helplessly, seeing Ken and Chikusa struggle furiously with their chains. "They are the enforcer of the commandments in the mafia world, and they trial those who cannot be trialled by law."

"W-Wait – "

"Don't interfere, Tsuna. It'll be troublesome."

"O-Okay…" But then – Tsuna realised that a collar was strapped around Kiriyuu, too, and she was being pulled along with Mukuro and the others. "No!" He screamed, and he ran forward, grabbing Kiriyuu back by the ankles without giving a second thought. It looked awkward, but he couldn't let them take away Kiriyuu. Not her!! "No! You can't take her!! She's a victim! It wasn't her fault!!!"

"Tsuna – " Reborn said, sternly, and he reluctantly shook his head at him disapprovingly.

"NO!" He screamed, clenching his eyes shut, but then – a hand on his shoulder made him re-open his eyes and look up. "Huh?"

"Ah, don't worry, young Vongola." The man said, and Tsuna gawked at him. It was a man he did not recognise. His face wasn't wrapped up in bandages like the Vendicare, so he knew this man wasn't one of them. He was tall, wearing a black suit and dress shirt. His eyes were dark red and he had a horizontal scar across his forehead. He must've come with the Vendicare. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Guiseppe. I am Kiriyuu's godfather. Let go of her feet now, young man."

"Y-You're letting her be taken away?!"

His thin smile wavered. "…..Unfortunately…Yes, but she is not to be trialled by the Vindice."

"H-Huh?"

"The Giglio Nero want Kiriyuu back, young Vongola."

"You're her godfather! Do something!"

Guiseppe frowned, "… I was away on a conference to appeal for Kiriyuu's case, concerning her failed mission to assassinate Hibari Kyouya, but now, her desecrated alliance with mafia criminals… especially those exiled by the mafia, with plots to annihilate the mafia… is not a matter that is to be lightly acted upon. The Giglio Nero don't tolerate traitors to the mafia. It is even beyond my power and control, I regret to say."

"Kiriyuu's not a traior! You can't – "

"Well then, what can _**you **_do, young Vongola? What can _**you **_do for another member of a different mafia family?"

He was going to say something again, but Reborn stopped him. Tsuna then shrieked out helplessly, and Kiriyuu's godfather tried to calm him down. "B-But… It's not fair! She was being controlled! She told me – she-she was controlled by Mukuro _AND_ a split personality, it wasn't her doing all that stuff! Kiriyuu didn't ally herself with Mukuro!"

"Tsuna, stop it. Kiriyuu will not be punished. Nor will she be taken by the Vendicare. First, they need to get her to a hospital to treat her injuries."

"Reborn… you believe in Kiriyuu, don't you?"

"I believe she is innocent."

There was a slight, uncomfortable silence. Tsuna looked down, as the members of the Vongola medic team finally poured in, and Gokudera, Bianchi, Fuuta, Hibari, Yamamoto, and Kiriyuu, were put onto stretchers. Breathing masks were strapped over their noses and IV tubes were rammed into their veins, encompassing them into a comatose, morbid world of anaesthetic. Tsuna was the only one still living and standing. His face hurt, his head hurt, his arms hurt, and his legs hurt. He was wounded, but somehow…

Tsuna felt angry at himself that he wasn't in the same condition like the others. Even though he won, he felt as though he had cheated and got lucky, while everyone else had to suffer all those major injuries beforehand; he got out with a lucky scrape. Then again, this was all Mukuro's doing. He had done all this just to get to Tsuna.

The torment Mukuro had inflicted on Kiriyuu, and Fuuta, felt severely unjustified.

"Don't think like that, Tsuna." Reborn said, tugging at his oven glove. It had reverted back to normal. "You are the boss of the Vongola, and caring for your subordinates is crucial, and think about it this way – you are already willing to get hurt to protect and save your friends, then your friends will do the same for you, too."

"…Especially Kiriyuu." Tsuna mumbled out. "… What will happen to them?" Tsuna asked frightfully, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Their crime will be put on trial, and they will be punished. Their punishment won't be light." Reborn added. "… We don't live in a kind world." A small, wry smile appeared on Reborn's face, as Tsuna bit his lip and watched the four Kokuyo-uniformed people get dragged away. "… Don't worry, we'll see them again, someday."

* * *

Sorry the battle was over so quick. It feels awkward trying to re-write what happens in a manga. I always try to avoid it xO

Surprisingly enough, the antagonist(s) of this story are actually Mukuro, and Kiriyuu (mostly Kiriyuu). Ironically, Kiriyuu's antagonist didn't end up being Mukuro, but herself.


	48. Repression

**Chapter 48**

_Repression _

_4.05pm._

_After discovering the untimely death of her future self, and the result was due to an 'experiment', and a misunderstanding with the Vongola, especially with the Cloud Guardian, Ottuso Kiriyuu returned to her past, and decided to act on it._

_The way how she met Rokudo Mukuro was almost as if fate had led her to become one of his conscripted, mind-controlled soldiers. She went with her younger cousin, Elia, who wounded Kiriyuu in the shoulder._

_Whether or not Elia was controlled by Rokudo Mukuro at that time is still undisclosed._

………………..

Hibari stalked the perimeters of Kiriyuu's recovering room like a shark circling a diver's cage.

Occasionally, if there were any loiterers in the corridor of the hospital disturbing the peace, he'd personally see them off by biting them to death; it was lucky that Tsuna, Reborn and Gokudera, a few doctors and a few nurses, were an exception. Aside from his chosen few, Kiriyuu's room – no, scratch that – the _entire floor_ Kiriyuu's room was in, was practically off-limits to anyone else.

Tsuna, Reborn and Gokudera were sitting on the waiting chairs, a good, safe distance from Kiriyuu's room, watching the Head Prefect skulk relentlessly up and down outside, bandaged from head to toe, almost, with his leg still feeling half-dead so there was always seemingly a limp in mid-step. Yamamoto, Ryohei, Bianchi, Fuuta and Kiriyuu's younger cousin Elia were still hospitalized. Kyoko and Haru had returned home for the moment, having stayed for more than necessary the previous night.

Kiriyuu hadn't woken up ever since Mukuro crushed her skull. That was five days ago.

Tsuna still wasn't sure what had happened back in Kokuyo, but apparently, it became clear that either Kiriyuu had adopted a split personality, or Mukuro had created an illusion to mislead her. Nevertheless, he clung onto the belief that Kiriyuu was innocent. Reborn believed she was innocent, too. She was their friend, and she'd been their friend long enough, and he knew that she would never do such a thing.

"Testimonies provided by Mukuro Rokudo in interrogation reveals that he met Kiriyuu by a 'fateful encounter' in Kokuyo Health Land. Mukuro was holding 'meetings' there, and somehow, Elia, Kiriyuu's cousin, wounded Kiriyuu in the shoulder. That is all we know so far regarding that situation." Reborn said. "There are many theories, however."

Tsuna and Gokudera listened thoroughly.

"According to Mukuro, M was created by Kiriyuu. Currently, Kiriyuu is under severe psychoanalytic examination in which they will try and bring forth this M personality. The information we have right now – is that M is a psychological manifestation of all the negative emotions Kiriyuu harboured within her. Though M was initially created by Mukuro – because he was the one who exposed Kiriyuu to illusions - M was designed to distort and retreat Kiriyuu into a further dimension of repression – M's influence on Kiriyuu was much stronger than Mukuro because M is 'based' on Kiriyuu."

"Therefore, Mukuro did indeed, use an illusion on Kiriyuu. The process is simple - First, he used the illusion to trick her mind that there was nothing wrong with her even though she was shot in the shoulder and she was scarred by Hibari. They didn't take her to a hospital; she must've drawn on the power of illusions by accident and unconsciously created an illusion _herself _named M on the same day who began to descend Kiriyuu to madness." Reborn said, as he flicked through a few reports which he had brought out from a suitcase beside him by the seat. "His acquaintances support the evidence; Kiriyuu began to display symptoms of acute schizophrenia and paranoia."

Tsuna and Gokudera listened.

Reborn flicked through the next report. "Kiriyuu was unable to handle Mukuro's power and started to lose control of this illusion – in response, the illusion began to run amok and continued to feed on Kiriyuu's bitterness, anger and resentment, and grew stronger. Eventually it even began to take a will of its own and could occasionally take over Kiriyuu from time to time, which might explain the drastic, abrupt change to Kiriyuu's personality."

There was a slight pause.

"Unfortunately, there is no evidence to uphold that claim. There is another theory that Tsuzuru M is a result of Multiple Personality Disorder – this is the basis theory of what has happened to Kiriyuu – and also what the Namimori doctors are diagnosing her with; in essence, a split personality of Kiriyuu. Usually, this happens when someone experiences severe trauma, that the victim may split, or 'create' another personality, another alter, to protect themselves from the ordeal, unintentionally, of course. Some patients have been known to have more than one split personality – and these personalities are capable of having different lives, jobs, friends, everything."

Reborn flipped through the next page of the report.

"…The patient, and its alter, may be completely unaware of each other's presences – you've heard of _Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde_ - for Kiriyuu's case, M was her only alter, and she did not realise M was a split personality until a _series of events_ forced her to face the truth. Alters are usually conflicting with the host due because they are a _split_ personality. M is the complete opposite of Kiriyuu."

"Kiriyuu isn't insane." Tsuna said calmly.

"… A search was warranted on Kokuyo premises for further investigation during your hospital stay – Joushima Ken, Kakimoto Chikusa, M.M, Birds, Lanchia and the twins have all been apprehended and there is no account from them that there had been a person named Tsuzuru M, who is supposed to have 'medium-length brown hair and blue eyes', had been in Kokuyo as part of their group…"

"What? B-But… what about the things she must've touched, and – "

"We found some possessions that 'M' had apparently handled – but they are all Kiriyuu's own fingerprints, and contain her DNA. Rokudo Mukuro's testimonies also provide solid, empirical support to back up that theory." He finished with a sigh.

"NO!" Tsuna yelled, then immediately quietened down when he remembered that he was in a hospital, "I can't let Kiriyuu become the scapegoat for something she didn't do! You have to help her, Reborn!!" He hissed out.

"…. I proposed a motion forward to the _Worldwide Mafia Database_. It's a secret organisation where all members of the mafia, from any background or family, are registered under – they also often rely on Fuuta's rankings from time to time. I requested that they searched up all the existing members of the mafia – but in all databases searched, there is no-one in the mafia called 'Tsuzuru M'."

"What…? B-But… what if… what if M isn't even part of the mafia but just a regular, normal person?"

Reborn shook his head. "Tsuna, that's impossible. It's time to face reality."

"…So… what's going to happen now?"

"She's going to be in a hell lotta trouble, Juudaime." Gokudera replied instead.

Tsuna felt sick and held his head in his hands. He felt like he had failed Kiriyuu. He had failed to protect a close one. She was part of his family; he couldn't just sit by and watch it stroll by. Reborn put a hand on his shoulder.

"You did your best, Tsuna. Don't be so hard on yourself."

"No…" He mumbled out, "I didn't do anything to help her… she went through everything by herself… and she's going to have go through what's going to happen next all by herself again… what kind of friend am I? She's hurt badly and I couldn't do anything to help. What's she going to do now? Where is she going to go - "

"It's alright, Tsuna. Kiriyuu has Hibari now. She'll be fine."

"Hey… I just remembered something." Gokudera suddenly said. "…. Hibari and Kiriyuu fought back in Kokuyo even though they 'made up'. But it seemed to me they really hated each other before."

Reborn shook his head slightly, "No. Hibari has different ways of showing…." Pause. "Affection."

"…. You mean by beating Kiriyuu up?"

"Perhaps." Even Reborn looked a bit stumped for a change.

Tsuna blinked blankly. "Then…. What does it mean when we get beat up by Hibari?"

"That he secretly loves you too." Reborn replied, with an evil baby smirk.

Tsuna went "HIIIEEEEE!" again. Gokudera had to calm him down. "It was just a joke, Juudaime." But even he was sniggering, and Tsuna went red with embarrassment.

They turned to her room; it had been surrounded by twenty-five men in black suits – the Giglio Nero, no doubt, and all professional hitmen, but Guiseppe managed to get them to back off for the time being, and let Hibari patrol instead. Even if he wanted to keep her from being taken away from him again, there was no way.

Kiriyuu was handcuffed to her bed.

While Rokudo Mukuro and his friends were in a different hospital to recuperate, Kiriyuu was admitted into Namimori General for the time being. She wasn't called a criminal during her time here, but that status was wavering - M was called a Dissociative Personality Disorder of Kiriyuu even though Tsuna called M an illusion of Mukuro that taken control over Kiriyuu; that meant Kiriyuu wouldn't be called a criminal. Or maybe M really was a bit of both; she was another personality of Kiriyuu, the hidden one, and had manifested physically and visibly using Mukuro's illusions.

The doctors had also just been called in; that was why Hibari had actually decided to leave the room for the moment and wait for the results. Otherwise, nothing would stop him from being at her side.

"What's wrong with Hibari-san?" Tsuna asked, "The doctors said that Kiriyuu would be alright. Why is he still so…. edgy?"

"After the events regarding Mukuro Rokudo, Hibari has, perhaps, realised how important Kiriyuu is to him. The threat of losing someone close to him, particularly Kiriyuu… Hibari thought he had really lost her forever back at Kokuyo Health Land, and now he will ensure that she stays safeguarded at all times. He will protect her with his life from now on." Reborn replied.

Gokudera was chewing on an unlit cigarette, and he glanced at Tsuna, "This over-protectiveness is actually quite cute." He said with a snigger.

"You really think so, Gokudera-kun?"

He nodded, then grinned. "Yeah, it finally shows the tonfa-freak's weakness. I can exploit it from hereafter."

"Gokudera-kun…." Tsuna sweat-dropped, and then the door to Kiriyuu's room opened; everyone swerved their eyes over. The doctor emerged out. Tsuna couldn't hear – he didn't think Gokudera or Reborn could hear what he was saying either, aside from Hibari, who had grabbed the doctor from the front of his white lapels, his nose almost touching his.

They watched. Hibari growling, doctor sweating, Hibari and his insults, doctor almost crying, but then - The doctor shook his head. Uh-oh. That didn't bode too well. Hibari let go of him, shoved him to the side and marched into Kiriyuu's room. At that point, Tsuna, Reborn and Gokudera got up from their seats and hurried into Kiriyuu's room. Inside, Guiseppe and Hibari were both giving the doctor a hard time.

Kiriyuu was lying on the bed, still unconscious. Her eyes were bandaged, so was her head, and her chin, her stomach too, Tsuna guessed. She looked awful. "What's going on?"

"I'm taking her back," It was Guiseppe who spoke first, "You incompetent Namimori doctors can't do squat."

Tsuna's jaw dropped, "W-What?? Y-You're taking Kiriyuu back… back to Italy?"

The doctor spoke this time, "Sir, we thoroughly recommend a different treatment compared to other coma patients here in Namimori General Hospital, since the haemorrhage in her brain has spread thus affecting her respiratory and pulmonary rate and has also induced decerebrate rigidity within the patient's body. Don't worry, in severe head injury, acute dubdural or intracerebral hematomas are common…. Aside from that, the rest of her symptoms are very bizarre; we may need to conduct more tests to see whether she is either in a state of withdrawal or if – "

"There's nothing wrong with her brain! She's not crazy and she certainly does NOT have a split personality! Just sign the goddamn release form!" Guiseppe barked at him, thrusting a piece of paper in his face. He turned back to Kiriyuu in the bed – her head, and her eyes were bandaged over tightly, a breathing mask strapped over her nose and mouth, "Kiriyuu is not a permanent inhabitant here, and her medical records are back in Italy, where she rightfully belongs."

"Kiriyuu isn't going anywhere," Hibari said calmly, and everyone turned to him, "The doctors in Namimori are more than capable."

The doctor actually seemed pleased that Hibari had said that. Meanwhile, Kiriyuu twitched on the bed, her heartbeat displayed on the monitor like little irregular mountain bumps once and a while. The doctor immediately went over to her side to check.

"No," Guiseppe said, still addressing to Hibari, "You don't understand anything, Hibari Kyouya. Kiriyuu is in deep trouble enough."

Hibari irked. Meanwhile, the doctor was checking Kiriyuu's IV tube.

Her fingers were twitching.

"Kiriyuu sacrificed a lot of things for you, the least you can do is let her go back to Italy and get proper medical care."

"She can decide herself where she wants to be when she wakes up."

" - I'm sorry, but could you leave the room, please?" The doctor requested politely, turning to the rest, he was repeatedly pressing the 'call' button for the nurse for backup.

At that point, Tsuna, Reborn and Gokudera quickly hurried out of the room, while Guiseppe and Hibari seemed to have required more persuasion. They waited for a few moments later, Hibari leaned against the wall, arms crossed. Tsuna, Gokudera and Reborn resumed their seats at the waiting chairs again, watching two or three nurses entering the room all at once, and everyone wondered what was going on - before the doctor stepped back out again.

"She's awake." He said, "…Who would like to talk to her first?"

…………………..

Guiseppe exited the room a few moments, closing the door slightly behind him. He turned to the remaining individuals – Tsuna, Reborn, and Hibari. Gokudera went to see how Yamamoto was doing in place of Tsuna. "She wants to see you, Hibari." He said, moving to the side to make way for Hibari.

Hibari got up from his seat and briskly brushed past Guiseppe without another word. He shut the door behind him and looked up; Kiriyuu was indeed, awake, but she was pallid, sickly-looking, and trying to smile through the thick bandages around her jaw, but her eyes were still bandaged.

"Hey…. Hibari…Is that you?" She groaned, trying to get up in her squishy bed which her weightless body practically immersed into. Her stomach _was_ completely bandaged, and she winced somewhat as she shifted her body weight.

"Don't talk or move if it hurts."

"No… it's okay." She then said, as he sat down on the stool beside her bedside where Guiseppe sat previously. She groped blindly for his hand, and caught it, smiling with relief. "…Urgh… My head really hurts, you know. I still can't believe I fell off the roof…I should be dead. But… I still don't know how I could've landed on the nail gun." She tilted her head to the side. "…And inject three nails into my gut, and my leg, and my shoulder. It's probably a good thing that I can't see at the moment…"

Hibari realised that Guiseppe must've lied. But how could he lie about what Kiriyuu was going to have to go through next?

"Guiseppe's angry at you, but I told him I didn't want him to be angry so he shouldn't be angry at you anymore." She quickly babbled out sheepishly, then – " He also said that Elia had been at hospital, too. She fell off a Space Hopper and hurt her leg."

"……Yes." Hibari grunted at her.

"What happened to you, Hibari? You're hurt too," She pointed out, rubbing over his bandaged hand. "Why is everyone hurt??"

He almost forgot all about the Kokuyo and those homicidal students he'd encountered. "What's that?" He asked instead. "That thing on your table."

"Oh…. Guiseppe gave me it. He said it's…It's…. mine, apparently. Can you tell me what it is?"

"It's a sheep's skull."

"A skull??? Why would I have… a skull?"

"You wore it."

"Oh…That's…weird. By the way… He's not still here, is he??"

"Who?"

"Longchamp." She grunted out every syllable begrudgingly.

He looked at her squarely again. Then he frowned at her. "What about him?"

"He's going to be laughing at me from now on forever…" Kiriyuu grimaced. Then, she turned to Hibari. "I can hear you frown. Are you jealous? Of Longchamp?" She giggled.

Hibari re-thought this particular moment. Kiriyuu was referring to Longchamp – the guy with all the uniform violations – who left to Italy quite a long time ago, a long time after sakura-viewing and graduation.

Kiriyuu had lost her memory.

A lot of her memory.

"….Why does my face hurt so much, too?" Kiriyuu tried to scratch at her plastered scar, but one of her hands were handcuffed. "I'm hurting all over. Sheesh."

"You really don't remember?"

Kiriyuu moved her head up thoughtfully, then shook her head slowly. "I just remember the fact that you wouldn't walk with me to school just because I had the peacock headdress on."

That meant Kiriyuu forgot that she had left Namimori, and that Hibari had scarred her. That meant she forgot a lot of things. She even forgot that her godfather had come to visit. She forgot that she had left Hibari on and off. She forgot all about the cabin trip. She forgot about Kokuyo. She forgot that she fought him. And she forgot that they -

"They said they operated on my head and I needed lots of stitches, but I still need to go for another operation. Is that why my head feels naked? Did they shave all my hair off?"

Hibari sighed somewhat, glancing at black, broken split ends of hair poking under her bandages. "Most of it."

She mourned, her hooked fingers raking at her head clumsily. "My hair….ahawhawhaw….My poor hair…!" She then moved her head back down, biting her lip keenly, seemingly calmed down. "…And uh, because there's something wrong with my brain… Guiseppe said… I have to go… _back_." She squeaked.

"You have your medical records in Italy."

"Yeah, I know. But… I don't want to go back. Namimori doctors are capable, right?" Kiriyuu replied, wiggling her toes under the covers.

"Go back," Hibari said, almost immediately. Kiriyuu's mouth hung open, shocked. And then she sniffled meekly, he merely ignored her. "You'll be more comfortable in Italy." He added.

"….You…. You really want me to go?"

"Just go." He said, "…It'll be one less mouth to feed."

"Oh." She muttered, "…….Guiseppe was hiding something from me, I could feel it. You're hiding something from me, too."

"No." Hibari replied, "You fell off the roof. I ordered you to repair it after the typhoon hit."

"What typhoon?"

He sighed. "You forgot; it was a few days ago before your accident."

"Oh." Suddenly, Kiriyuu leapt slightly, as she felt herself being drawn into someone's embrace. "Hibari? What are you – "

He stopped her in mid sentence, with his arms around her. "Stop talking and rest."

………………

The next set of visitor(s) to enter Kiriyuu's room consisted of Tsuna and Reborn; she was actually glad that it was just them two so far, she didn't want anyone else to see her like this. A wave of embarrassment flooded through her and she hid her face under the covers. On the other hand, Tsuna was sweating slightly.

_They're calling Kiriyuu insane. A lunatic. Crazy. Psychotic. A psychopath. And that she needs therapy. She doesn't. She's not crazy. She's Kiriyuu._

"Argh, I can't believe you guys have to see me like this. Falling off a roof is really sad, eh?" She guffawed at them. Tsuna took the stool, and Reborn sat on her bed.

"It's alright, Kiriyuu." Tsuna chuckled helplessly along with her, "You… gave us quite a scare."

"I think Hibari's pretty angry at me."

"Oh, no, no, no, he's not. Don't be silly."

Kiriyuu turned her head to him, following the direction of his voice, "Tsuna, you're hurt, too. What's going on? Why is everyone hurt?"

He remembered that her godfather and even Hibari, had opted not to tell her about the Kokuyo incident, and he began to sweat and tremble as he ransacked his brain for a simple excuse. "I-I was – "

"Tsuna locked himself in a large washing machine by accident." Reborn replied, and the boy ultimately cringed. The toddler cleared his throat, "What I'm more concerned with is your trial, Kiriyuu."

"Reborn!" Tsuna hissed, throwing a sideways glance to the girl, but when he turned to her himself, she was in fact, moving her head up and down thoughtfully with her free hand under her chin.

"….Guiseppe said these trials happen to every 14 year old in the Giglio Nero. I don't know what it's going to be about, though."

Tsuna's jaw dropped half-way. _W-What? R-Really? H-How could he lie about that? _

Reborn was also thinking hard, Tsuna knew, as the baby had been silent for some time. Tsuna turned back to Kiriyuu, and Reborn perked up, "Kiriyuu…. If things don't work out well… I have a proposition for you."

"Hrm? And what's that?" She asked lazily, yawning.

"…If you would consider joining the Vongola. Tsuna has been meaning to ask you, before your… accident."

"Huh?" Tsuna blinked, then he nodded abruptly, "Y-Yeah, I have. So, Kiriyuu, what do you say – "

There was no reply. She had gone unconscious again, her eyes were probably closed under those bandages, mouth open and a small amount of saliva dripping over the corner of her lips.

"K-Kiriyuu?"

She snored.

Reborn looked back up, and hopped off the bed. "She's sleeping. Come on, Tsuna. We should let Kiriyuu have her rest and see how the others are doing. She can tell us her answer when she wakes up."

"But R-Reborn…"

"It's fine, Tsuna. Kiriyuu does not remember anything that has happened during Kokuyo. She does not remember Mukuro Rokudo. It's best to leave her the way she is. She will be safer, and happier, without knowing the truth." Reborn replied, but then he sighed.

"Reborn, we can't – "

"Tsuna, sometimes we have to lie to people. _To protect them from themselves_." Reborn interrupted in gently, "She will learn the truth soon. But now's not the right time." He turned back to the girl. "…Kiriyuu's situation is just as complicated as I thought. During her time in Kokuyo, Kiriyuu's mental health has severely deteriorated. It will take some time for her to get better."

"What's really going to happen to Kiriyuu, Reborn? You said before, but I didn't understand - "

"We have no solid evidence to conclude, with extreme certainty, when M 'took over' Kiriyuu at any point and took control over her. Some people use Split Personality Disorder as an excuse for their actions, some even say it does not exist. What we still do not comprehend is whether M was a split personality of Kiriyuu, or if she was really an illusion, and that is why…."

Tsuna blinked. "….What? Why what?"

"…Kiriyuu is most likely to be convicted guilty of treason towards the Giglio Nero."

**Later….**

"Hibari, what are you going do when I'm not at home?"

He didn't even realise that she had woken up, and was now blinking at him from her bed intently. Previously, he'd spoon-fed her bland and dead hospital food. Next time, he'd bring food from the house. She tilted her head at him; the bandages were gone, seeing as there was no problem with her eyes now. She was still finding it hard to come to the terms that she was somewhat bald.

Now she was trying to imagine Hibari bald.

He was sitting in a spare chair beside the coffee table, the ram skull lay intact beside his arm. He stopped flicking his eyes over his homework, which he brought with him, and put down his pen. Hibari was actually wearing his pyjamas; he'd decided to stay in the hospital for the whole night and stay in her room. So far, they'd been drenched in silence for the past few minutes, with Kiriyuu floating in and out of sleep occasionally. And occasionally, she'd murmur something in her sleep. Gibberish.

She had visits from Yamamoto, Bianchi, Fuuta and the others beforehand, and that seemed to make her feel better. Even Elia had visited her. God, the girl was crying hysterically and continuously over nothing, and Kiriyuu forgave her, as she couldn't remember any time when Elia shot Kiriyuu in the shoulder. Why would she ever do such a thing? Aside from that, everyone was hurt too. But Reborn explained to her thoroughly. The lies were downright ridiculous.

Yamamoto was involved with a hit-and-run accident by an old lady's electric trolley.

Bianchi was chopsticked. Three times.

Gokudera was struck by lightning.

Oh, and as Reborn mentioned before; Tsuna got stuck in one of those huge washing machines/dryers and was only freed after the rinse cycle was finished.

As Guiseppe said before, Elia fell off her space hopper.

And Hibari fell off his motorcycle.

Kiriyuu wanted to see Hibari falling off his motorcycle and perhaps falling into a ditch and breaking all his bones, judging by his wounds. Not that it'd be amusing or anything. She just wanted to see. She also couldn't believe that he had broken every bone in his body just because he fell off a motorbike. Oh well, it just goes to show the dangers of motorbikes. Right?

"You're awake." He said.

"Yeah," She gleamed at him but it looked tense, and her voice was hoarse and rough, "I was watching you do your homework. It's really fascinating, watching you work, your eyebrow wiggles up and down whenever you're thinking and - "

"Stop talking if it hurts," He slid out of his chair and stopped at her bedside, pulling the bed stool over. "You have lots of homework to catch up on."

She nodded, giggling lightly, and watched him in silence for a few moments, then she sighed drearily and turned to her front. "…I'm scared, Hibari." She whimpered out, "I…I don't want to go. What if…what if the operation back in Italy isn't successful? I'll… I'll never wake up. And then…and then I won't be able to see you again. Or Tsuna… or Yamamoto… everyone…" Kiriyuu whimpered under her breath.

She was promptly interrupted when Hibari climbed over her in the bed gently, hovering above her with his knees on her either side of her leg, and his arms at the side of her head. He made sure he didn't crush her with his body weight.

"You…" He began, gazing directly into her eyes, "I want you. So you will wake up after the operation. I order you to go through with this operation. And I order you to come back. Come back to Namimori. I don't care when, as long as you come, or else, I'll track you down myself, and bite you to death for disobeying my orders."

She blinked numbly at her, and then, her expression softened and she nodded briefly with a blunt smile. "… I'll…I'll look forward to that."

Hibari leaned in.

Kiriyuu instantly went wide-eyed just before his lips touched hers. "Uh…what are you doing?"

He stopped. Then he climbed off her.

Kiriyuu went wide-eyed again, realising what she had just done and cursed mentally at herself; she had missed out on an opportunity. "No, no, no! Hibari, come back – I – you were going to – I'm sorry… It was… Urgh, I'm so stupid ….!"

"Just go back to sleep."

She whimpered, checked the clock on the wall; it was ten minutes past one in the morning, "It's pretty late, Hibari. You should sleep. Oh, they never fixed you up a bed, did they?"

"They did." He retorted, "I didn't want it."

"Where are you going to sleep then?"

He gazed expectantly at her, and Kiriyuu's eyes widened like saucers again. She struggled to make room for Hibari, but it hurt too much, looked at him helplessly. "I can't."

The next thing that happened surprised her so much the only thing she could do was gape up at Hibari like a fish out of water. He had put his arms under her and lifted her up smoothly from the bed, holding her close against him. She blinked owlishly at him, and suddenly she felt very small against him as he then gently laid her down just a few inches away from where she had lying before so there was room for Hibari – he had to shake her off because she had latched onto his arm. He immediately occupied the space she had provided him with – the bed, was actually large enough to fit two people – but Hibari's elbow was almost ramming into Kiriyuu's nose, and he ended up having to turn onto his side, while she continued to lie on her back.

"Comfy?" She asked.

"I should be asking you that." He remarked with a grunt, sliding himself under the covers and pulling them over her and folding it under her sides and around the perimeter of her body, and once he made sure that she was properly secure and tucked in, he dropped back down beside her, his face pressed against her neck.

"Yes, I'm comfy." She declared out loud.

Hibari began to brush some stray strands of leftover hair from her face; she turned to him, and smiled. That was rather odd of Hibari to do so. She felt her weight sank into the bed, "You're close." Her heart suddenly began to beat a little faster than normal when Hibari leaned forward into her.

"…Yes, I am close to you." He muttered under his breath, swerving his eyes up to her without moving his head. Then – "Don't snore."

She went 'urgh' again. "Nooo, don't worry, I don't snore. Well, I don't think I do." A short sigh heaved from her lips, as Hibari reached over, flipped the light switch above her head.

The lights went out. Hibari fumbled a lot in the dark, but eventually eased himself in, and an arm was suddenly perched above her stomach and around her waist, pressing her body close to his. She was rigidly cold compared to Hibari, and Kiriyuu craned her head to him, his hair tickling her cheek. His nose pressed firmly over her neck, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. She jerked at her hand – the handcuffed one, and frowned. A tight, nipping squeeze inflicted on her other hand made her turn back; Hibari's eyes were closed, and she blinked, lifted up the covers slightly, trying to pinpoint their entangled fingers.

"Oh, wait, the covers aren't covering you." Kiriyuu took her hand out again and grabbed the edge of the duvet, tried to pull them over him.

He tugged on her hand impatiently again and brought it back down. "I'm fine. Go to sleep." Hibari muttered, his eyes still closed.

Kiriyuu pursed her lips, then nodded as she huddled under the covers beside him. In response, his arm curled tighter around her waist, pressing her to him warmly. "Night, Hibari."

…..

…….

………..

She woke up, sweating.

She had a dream.

No, nightmare, she thought. But as she tried to calm down, she ultimately forgot what it was about. Her stomach hurt like mad, burning and squirming, compressing and tumbling around like clothes in a washing machine. Being spoon-fed with hospital food by Hibari was a nice experience, but now she felt sick, having being unable to digest it properly.

Groaning faintly, she glanced over to her alarm clock and pressed on the 'snooze' button. It was roughly 4am. Kiriyuu turned to Hibari; or tried to, when she ultimately realised she had her back pressed against his chest and he was now nuzzling her softly in his sleep.

The covers had fallen off him, mostly back to her again (maybe it was Hibari); she smiled awkwardly and pulled the covers back over so they draped over him, too.

She turned back to her side. She hated waking up in the middle of the night, no matter if she was back at home or wherever, especially waking up and remembering that she was to be transferred from Namimori General Hospital back to Italy. How long she would stay in Italy to recover, she wasn't so sure. Maybe after the operation, she'd have to spend months remembering how to walk or do other actions all by herself in a rundown rehabilitation centre or something. She stared off into the darkness, and sighed. She heard a shifting noise off to her left, and glanced over, having to lift herself up by her elbows to see over Hibari's sleeping form. The blinds were not properly drawn, emitting thin beams of light into the room.

Someone was sitting in the chair at the small coffee table, and Kiriyuu squinted her eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness.

"Say goodbye to Hibari, Kiriyuu," It was a female voice, and Kiriyuu was transfixed by the sound, it felt familiar but she couldn't seem to remember where she had heard it before, "You won't see him again. They have approved of your release, and they're planning to take you back to Italy first thing in the morning."

Kiriyuu blinked in astonishment.

"No…. Don't wake up Hibari and tell him that there's a complete stranger in your room…. He won't be able to see me. Only you." This girl said.

"…Who… are you…?" Kiriyuu croaked out, her voice rough and raspy. She turned to back to her table to reach for her glass of water by the clock.

It wasn't there.

The figure rose up in the chair, letting the moonlight illuminate her silhouette. "I'm glad you kept my face." She picked up the ram skull on the table, and fitted it over her head. The girl let out a delicate giggle, her voice muffled behind the skeleton mask, wobbling the glass of water in her hand. Kiriyuu's glass of water.

"My name is M." The girl added, "Tsuzuru M."

……………….

_4.34pm._

_Ottuso Kiriyuu was taken under Rokudo Mukuro's care, and met M._

_M was everything Kiriyuu wanted to be._


	49. Memoirs of a Giglio Nero

**Chapter 49**

_Memoirs of a Giglio Nero_

M had returned from the ends of Samsara, or whatever the hell that place Mukuro had summoned her to was called; it was a cross between The Secret Garden and Emerald City - whereas Mukuro was stripped of belongings and autonomy, his power to create illusions and 'take walks' within them remained. She was now 'talking' to Kiriyuu – the girl really couldn't remember M at all. Maybe it was better that way.

"You know what, Kiriyuu?"

"…What?"

"You are my Creator, but so is Mukuro. He has that advantage over the both of us. I guess I am an illusion. Only I was based off from all your anger and hate and so I was angry and full of hatred. You also needed a… friend. They called me your friend. Your little imaginary friend. Then they said you began to lose control of your mental stability even more, so I began to run wild and uncontrollable. I'm your evil 'twin', I suppose. I had to be stopped."

Kiriyuu blinked sluggishly at her from across the room. "What?" She was still drifting in and out of sleep. "And how come Hibari can't hear us…? He's…He's a light sleeper…"

M sighed, "That's because this is happening in your mind – you're dreaming. Anyway … Mukuro originally had lots of plans. Wonderful, yet terrible, selfish plans. Yes… so_ terrible_… He wanted to take control of you and initiate an internal war within the Giglio Nero, but he knew that was too risky. So he chose the Vongola instead."

"What's a Mukuro?"

"I talked to him. I realised he also wanted you to go against the Vongola and return to the Giglio Nero; he would wipe your memory clean and implant hate towards them. You would grow up 10 years later with an intense hatred for the Vongola for absolutely no reason - all which Mukuro would implant you with, and then all these misunderstandings would occur between you and the Vongola, you and Hibari, and you would ultimately die at his hands when he was done using you."

Kiriyuu blinked.

"Basically, you would become his puppet for the next 10 years, and he would hold the power to kill you off anytime he wanted. Kill _**us**_ off, actually."

Kiriyuu cocked her head to the side.

"… You're still a part of me, and I'm still a part of you even though I don't like to admit it. I'm the…_thing_…that connects you to Mukuro. You should be glad I'm here for you."

"..Eh?"

" - Because I won't let that happen to you. This trial that the Giglio Nero will hold soon, in order to verify whether you are guilty of allying with a mafia criminal in a plot to eradicate the entire mafia and start a world war… is very serious business, you know."

"Really? But I don't remember…"

"Of course you don't. Mukuro hit you right in the head. He made sure he did. I saw the way how he smirked; this is all part of his plan as well. You don't want to remember Mukuro anyway. In fact, he's going to help you. He is going to make sure you will NOT be sentenced as 'guilty' even though all the evidence gathered up is enough to prove how guilt-ridden you are…."

"Oh."

"But I won't let that happen either."

"What?"

A crude grin spread across M's features. "….You see, what Mukuro wants…We're not going to let him have it. _No_…We're going to be found guilty _**deliberately**_. I won't help you. I won't turn up and they won't see me, but you, only You. They will call you sane, capable of making your own decisions and carrying out your own actions."

Kiriyuu blinked slowly again.

"You _**will **_be convicted guilty of partnering up with a homicidal ex-mafia criminal named Rokudo Mukuro, and participate in his plans to eradicate the entire mafia; the Giglio Nero, and attempt to cause a worldwide mafia war. And that…." M laughed, "Now _that_ will be the last thing we will ever do as part of our redemption."

"Huh? Our… redemption?"

"Freedom, Kiriyuu. You've always wanted freedom. Mukuro told me - I've ended up becoming the most important person in this whole situation; I've become the 'Core'. I'm not just here because of your inability to cope with the problems you had – and I'm certainly not just here because you want someone to talk to - I am what connects you and Mukuro, but he is stronger than you." M said, and then, she looked down at her lap, "…I could listen to him, and accept his offer and have you destroyed even though it will mean that I will be free from you, but… I - "

Kiriyuu blinked at her blearily.

"Never mind – anyway, he will have some sort of control over you if I'm here, so… Without me, this 'link' between you and Mukuro, will be diminished, and he won't be able to land a finger on you. He won't be able to hurt any of us."

"I don't… understand…" She mumbled out sleepily.

"Anyway, when you wake up again, Kiriyuu, you will be in Italy. This will be the last thing I will do for you - I won't be there for you anymore, so I guess this is the end."

"…Um. Where will you go …?"

She laughed, and then shook her head. "….You don't need me anymore, Kiriyuu, so you shouldn't think about it. And now that the Vongola is your chance of the redemption which you've always wanted, don't screw it up, you got that?"

Kiriyuu nodded dumbly, still half-asleep.

M stood up, and she took off her ram helmet, "And you will wake up with absolutely no memory of our conversation, in…_Three_…"

Kiriyuu blinked, as M raised the skull in her arms. "Whoa, what the heck are you doing?"

M paused, then her shoulders dropped and gestured angrily. "Urgh, you just couldn't keep quiet and let me finish, could you?"

"….Sorry."

M cleared her throat impatiently at her, "_Two."_

Kiriyuu waved meekly. "…Bye, M."

"_One."_

M threw the ram skull on the floor.

Kiriyuu woke up at the sound of something smashing. The first thing she did was look to her up and around, her eyes landed to her right, where a calendar was conveniently placed; a long time had passed since she saw Longchamp, so that meant she'd been unconscious for a long time.

And she was in Italy.

"Hibari." She croaked out, and she looked around this unfamiliar room. "H-Hibari…?"

He wasn't here.

Kiriyuu began to hyperventilate. "Hibari?? Where are you?? Hibari!!!" She'd accidentally rolled off her bed and fell to the floor. She looked around desperately; realising that she was in a hospital room, and struggled to get up.

Her legs didn't move.

Kiriyuu's jaw dropped as she tried to get up, but her legs were identical to jelly and she couldn't even muster a wiggle of her ankle, and then, she raised a shaky hand and touched at her head – her long hair was gone. She touched at her stomach, feeling bumpy ridges over her skin and lifted up her hospital garb, and almost gasped. There were so many scars and stitches. She looked up, gasping in disbelief and quickly called out for someone. But then she realised even her words were slurred and her jaw felt slack. She'd lost the ability to walk _and_ talk. Kiriyuu felt like she was going to cry; she couldn't see Hibari anywhere, and he was the first person she wanted to see in this unfamiliar place. They took her away from him. She couldn't believe it. W-What did Hibari do when she was taken away? Obviously he had to let her go because she needed the operation, right? And now –

The trial.

Even though she still couldn't completely remember why she was to be on trial, let alone wonder why this was happening to her in the first place, or even remember when she flown to Italy, Guiseppe had the courtesy to tell her that they couldn't afford any time to be wasted, and instantly transferred her onto the plane from the hospital in Namimori. She wondered what happened to Hibari.

A few days later, and Kiriyuu heard that the Vongola had just finished a scrabble for the Vongola rings and Hibari was now proud wielder and sole bearer of the Vongola ring of the Cloud. Of course, this was all nonsense to Kiriyuu because she didn't know much about Vongola history – and she herself, had no idea what was going to happen to her, so she had less of an idea of what was happening back in Namimori.

Her head injuries had fully recovered, but at the price of sealing most unwanted memories, Kiriyuu's reflexes and mobility were thoroughly limited. Her hair had also grown back to a small extent, now only going past her ears, but it was brown, the black dye had seeped away. She spent a fair amount of time recovering, going through therapy at the psychiatric hospital at the same time. Therapy took a few weeks as well.

Kiriyuu didn't respond to the name Tsuzuru M. She never appeared. They couldn't find anything else wrong with Kiriyuu. She wasn't suffering from Split Personality Disorder. Well, if she did have it at some point, she didn't have it anymore. And maybe she never had.

Aside from therapy, she even had to start to learn talking and walking properly again – because she had been asleep for roughly a month and hadn't used her legs – or her mouth and tongue to speak - for that amount of time. However, she was still able to grasp onto the tasks, and could even start swinging her arms up and around, lifting random objects and even rotating her hips in circles – which was possible over a short period of a few days. They said she had fully recovered, and Kiriyuu returned home.

_Home._

Well, sort of. Guiseppe put her bags down once they arrived through the door and she went up to her room. Kiriyuu's house was a three storey villa – three houses in one, basically. Most of the houses in her neighbourhood were identical, so they didn't stick out and screamed 'I AM MAFIA AND TRADE-A-WEAPONRY AND LIVESTOCK AND MAKE HUGE MONEH SO I BUY BIG HOUSE', no, it wasn't like any of that stereotypical, prejudice crap. Kiriyuu and her family opted to blend in, and the property was listed under her mother's name, but her mother was now working on the cannabis farm, and receiving 24 hour care, too. Guiseppe had the top bunk of the house, while Elia had the house of the second floor, and Kiriyuu had the house of the groundfloor all to herself. But Hibari's house was now home. She liked her box room, even if ten thousand ants died in it and would be forever haunting her dreams with their ghostly… well, what kind of sounds did ants make? Clicking? You know, their little antennaes? Okay, fine, clicking ghostie-ant sounds.

It wasn't much like home anymore, she thought, with the preparations being made for the amalgamation with another mafia family.

"Kiriyuu, are you alright?" Guiseppe asked, realising that the girl had suddenly squeezed her eyes shut and slammed her hands over her head. He also noticed that she was sweating and trembling.

She turned to him shakily, "… Did…Did something happen to me? Something… bad?"

Guiseppe blinked, and his response took longer than usual. "You remember?"

In fact, he sounded extremely reluctant to answer, but Kiriyuu grabbed his arm, and then shook her head sadly.

He sighed; the truth needed to be known sometime soon, "…You were in Kokuyo. They took Mukuro, and his friends, to another prison. The security is far stronger than the previous jail they were held in, so chances of them escaping again is low. You won't ever see him again."

Kiriyuu blinked blankly at him. "…………Who's Mukuro?"

Guiseppe flushed slightly. "Err… n-never mind."

"When was…uh, this?"

"… I think it was about a month ago. You were still in the hospital, in a coma."

"Oh."

"What can you remember?"

There was a brief pause from the girl, and then, Kiriyuu looked back up at him, and said gently, "Spanner."

"Eh?"

"I remember… a spanner. And something… about…me. Something bad happened to me."

Guiseppe squinted his lip and patted her on the head awkwardly. "I'm sorry, Kiriyuu. I'm actually quite surprised that you remember something, especially with the injury Mukuro inflicted to your head. Sometimes, the brain deliberately blocks out traumatic experiences. But… sometimes that's always the case." He patted her hand reassuringly.

She blinked, then looked down. "They'll be coming for me now, won't they?"

He glanced away from her, "Actually, Kiriyuu…You've already been summoned, ever since you woke up. The trial is next week. It's going to start at 2pm."

……………………

_5.28pm._

_As a series of events flowed out, Ottuso Kiriyuu discovered that she was the only person who could see M, and M had been taking over Kiriyuu's place and impersonating her by force._

_When M took over, Kiriyuu often retreated to a fugue state of amnesia, which is a condition that may last for minutes, weeks or weeks, where the victim will lose awareness of where they are, what they are doing. _

_The victim is not held responsible for their actions._

……………….

Guiseppe was with her once more; they waited in the lobby half an hour before trial.

Her back was tense, rigid against the dashboard seat, with the velvet red, pin-dotted cushion, mahogany armrests, which her fingers were clenching tightly over and fingernails screeching over polished varnish. Elia had come but she was being a witness. She had forgiven Elia back at the hospital, and she understood, well, sort of. In a way, that was them saying 'goodbye' to one another already. Kiriyuu had just gone to the bathroom five minutes ago, and now she was now staring intently at the bathroom sign above the door once more.

Guiseppe was busy chanting his mantra, holding a cross in his hand looped to a neckchain. His eyes were closed, and he was praying for her.

She looked away from him, feeling more insecure. _What will happen if I'm guilty? Where will I go? I won't know Spanner anymore, and he won't know me. I won't be close to Guiseppe or Elia anymore. Who's going to look after me? _Then she realised that Hibari had probably once been in her predicament, too. _This must be how Hibari feels. He's been alone for a long time, too._

Lying beside her, was her diary, and a pen, which she'd used to write more than ten pages of what had supposedly happened in Kokuyo, and what Hibari, Tsuna, the doctors, Guiseppe and Elia, had told her. She was waiting for a response from Spanner. Although she couldn't remember much about him, or how she could somehow contact him via her diary, she knew him. She knew Spanner. But she really couldn't remember what he looked like or anything else in particular about him. She hoped he was at least reading her diary, and had seen her new entries. She smothered at the corner of her eyes, which were starting to brim with water for no reason.

"Come on, Spanner… _Please_…"

…………………

He passed Kiriyuu's diary lying on his worktop. He had just come out from a shower, having worked since 8am yesterday, and all the rest of yesterday until two o'clock in the morning before drifting off to sleep and waking up at twelve. He dabbed at his damp hair with his towel, before plugging in the hairdryer and pulling on his jumpsuit, hopping into one leg before glancing over his shoulder towards the diary.

Strange, it looked different than usual. Usually, the pages were flat, indicating that they weren't written on…. But now it looked bombarded with fat, fluctuated pages. He limped over, whipped it open and quickly flipped to the latest entry – which was identifiable and distinguishable because she had left a large gap between her last entry, and this new entry.

At first, he went right to the last page of her latest entry. He had flipped through thirteen pages. And he sighed.

…_.. I really have to read all that?_

Wait.

…**In Italy… going for a trial…. 2pm… they will come for me –**

He took a brief moment to think. _I'm in the Millefiore base in Italy at the moment, right?_

His inner mentor said, in a matter-of-fact tone: _Yes. Yes, you are. And Kiriyuu's in Italy, 10 years in the past today. You're in the same time zone , genius._

Spanner checked the clock.

1.54pm.

………………….

"The court summons you now."

Kiriyuu stared at them with wide-eyes, then whipped her head back to her diary lying beside her on the sofa. She wasn't even sure what she was waiting for, regarding the diary. She had gone through it three times and there had been no change. "_What?_ NO. NO! I can't – I need more time – " She desperately muttered out, holding the diary close to her tightly.

Guiseppe clutched her hand firmly. "Kiriyuu, it'll be alright, I'll be with you, I'll appeal for you again and it'll – "

"NO!" She screamed out hysterically, "Don't tell me that everything will be fine when it is not!" She wiped at her eyes quickly, turned back to the diary, and suddenly, she was grabbed back from behind, and they were trying to handcuff her. The book dropped out of her hands, back onto the sofa. "No!!! Let go of me!!!"

She reached for her diary. All she needed was her diary. She needed Spanner's response. Anything.

Anything.  
Just anything will do.

…………………

Spanner was sweating; he shakily wrote something quickly onto a piece of paper and then pulled the device over; his fingers surprisingly clumsy and slippery against the Time Requiem – which had chosen to conveniently broken down at this precise moment. He glanced at the clock on the wall.

1.57pm.

He cursed under his breath, adjusting the Time Requiem's location and time for now. It just wouldn't goddamn send, that was the only problem. He roared in frustration.

1.58pm.

Nothing happened.

1.59.

Spanner let out another frustrated roar, grabbed it and shook it fiercely, making bolts and screws inside rattle furiously against its plastic cover. Goddamnit, he'd never felt so worked up in his life. This was all Kiriyuu's fault - He waited for a response from the device.

Still nothing.

……………………..

Meanwhile, Kiriyuu was still being pried back but resisted thoroughly. She had to get her diary! She had to get it no matter what! They managed to hook one hand behind her back, and one of the guards even had to straddle her back and try to bring her other flailing arm into order. She screamed, protesting wildly, and accidently hit the diary out of the sofa using the back of her hand; it landed on the ground, and a piece of scrap paper, that looked as if someone had chewed on it and spit it back out, dropped out in front of her eyes.

Kiriyuu stared in disbelief.

Without hesitating any longer, she snatched it greedily with her one hand clumsily and opened it, just as the guard pulled her up to her feet, her other arm now handcuffed behind her. The paper was in horrible condition, it was ripped in one corner and there were too many creases and folds. Smudge of black inks that were meant to be words were barely decipherable. She quickly scanned the contents as they dragged her up to her feet.

_**No matter what happens I will always be there for you**_

_**Spanner-nii**_

Kiriyuu stared on breathlessly, stunned. Then she was pulled back away from her diary before she could see more, which Guiseppe collected and stuffed inside his suitcase. She was sure she had read it correctly, and she was led into the courtroom, still blinking somewhat unsurely.

She smiled with relief.

………………..

The Time Requiem was dumped in the recycling bin, having been smashed repeatedly on the table thanks to Spanner.

At least it worked before it broke.

Spanner was still writing in…his, urhh... diary. He checked the clock, scribbled down the time for the moment, before pulling out the court records from his folder, which he'd managed to trace in the Giglio Nero information base during Kiriyuu's time at session in court, ten years ago. Along with those pieces of crucial evidence, he'd managed to successfully finish reading Kiriyuu's latest diary entry and realised those thirteen pages were dedicated about her time spent at Kokuyo Health Land with Mokuro Rokudo. There goes the explanation for the blank in her diary.

That was over an hour ago.

There was a knock on the door, and he turned round. The door opened regardless, and a Cervello poked her head through the doorway to his office. "Sir, the documents you requested." She said, a stack of documents enclosed in her hand.

He took the documents off her. "Right, thank you." He put the pile on his desk, and she excused herself, shut the door behind her. He swerved back round to his desk and looked through the endless amounts of files that she had given him – these files were part of the court case. He looked through – all ten years old; Kiriyuu's health record, a doctor's statement, testimonies, and the last document, which was stamped with the Giglio Nero emblem – the outcome of the trial.

Spanner scanned the rest of the contents, then sighed and bundled them back up. He took one last glimpse to Kiriyuu's diary, then scratched at his ear with his pen, began to write again.

_5.38pm._

_Whether or not Ottuso Kiriyuu really had a split personality she called 'M', or if 'M' was in fact, an illusion created by Kiriyuu when she was provided with a small amount of Rokudo Mukuro's power, that it began to manifest free will and began to take over, or even if M was an 'excuse' for Kiriyuu to rebel, the outcome was the same; Kiriyuu realised she had become mentally unstable._

_However, if this alter, this counterpart, this 'alter ego' of Kiriyuu, had allied with Rokudo Mukuro, and participated in his plans to eradicate the mafia, then Kiriyuu is innocent. _

_Despite that we are the mafia; we do not punish those who are innocent. _

………………

Spanner looked at the last document that had been brought to him, and flipped it open. When he finished reading Kiriyuu's official jurisdiction, he sighed, and picked up his pen once more.

………………

_5.44pm._

_Kiriyuu was trialled on this exact day, ten years ago, at 1400 hours. The trial lasted for three hours and a half, ending at 1730._

_She was found guilty, and exiled from the Giglio Nero._

* * *

I've had to skip the Varia arc for this story and had to say that Kiriyuu was out of commission because if she was still up and running, and if she had kept her memory, the first she'd do is probably tell the others about the war.

I think I'll include the Varia in the direct sequel to this story. **The spin-off story to this will be a Spanner OC**; I don't think I'd do a Tsuna OC because I don't mind him with either Kyoko or Haru.

2 more chapters to go and this story is finished!

I hope you guys will still continue to support me :D


	50. My Gawdawful Life and Hibari

I've actually stopped playing Persona 4 for now because it doesn't feel as addicting as Persona 3, but I did manage to save Yukiko and I'm impressed with the characters of this game and their fighting techniques. Now me and my sister are Singstars!! (lol)

Does anyone have the new Nintendo DSi? It's about 145-150 quid here, and I don't know if it's worth it or not...

Anyway, sorry for rambling. Enjoy the chapter! :D

**Chapter 50**

_My Godawful Life and Hibari_

Kiriyuu stumbled out of the courtroom.

The worst moment of her life was finally over. And it was official once the gavel struck the hard surface, and the jury was out. It was documented. It was imprinted with the family emblem. She wasn't part of the Giglio Nero anymore. Basically, she was kicked out of her family. The family she'd been serving since… well…. Ever.

She was… nobody.  
Just a regular, run-of-the-mill, 14 year old girl.

She was… **Normal**.

Eeek.

_I can't believe it. I'm scared of being absolutely, and utterly, completely __**normal**__._

_Alright! Now I can start living life to its fullest! I can start joining clubs and sell girl scout cookies door to door! I can eat all sorts of food like pop tarts and spam fritters, deep fried mars bars and bangers and smash and not be scared of putting on too much weight or whatever! _

_Life, here I come! I'm ready for whatever you throw at me!_

_I'm ready to unleash my potential!_

**Two minutes later.**

_Nothing yet._

**Four minutes later.**

_Urgh._

…_who am I kidding? _

**Six minutes later.**

Kiriyuu slumped, depressed. The fact that she was now utterly powerless and normal seeped in and she groaned out in frustration.

_I'm nobody. I'm the most unaccomplished individual on earth.  
__I'm a loser._

The weapons and status that were provided to her within the Giglio Nero were stripped. She still had her Hitman HND, because that was bestowed to her at the _Academy_. She still had the sniper Reborn gave her, and she still had a pair of tridents (but she couldn't remember where she got them from). Like as if any of that was important or useful now anyway. She wouldn't be able to use them. No more scouting missions, no more target practise. No more reconnaissance assignments. No more.

_Maybe I could try and sell them on Ebay. Or Amazon._

She didn't like that thought. Oh well, time to do something Normal people do. Kiriyuu moved to the park, watching normal people walking normally with their right foot first then the left, then left hand swinging forwards before the right like normal people. She watched normal people chatting normally to each other about normal topics like 'this is a really good crepe' or 'that boy at the bakery is cute', she watched a normal old lady feed normal pigeons as she normally did at this time, she watched normal skater boys skid perfectly normal ovals around her before going to meet up with their other, normal skater friends who were clutching their normal, flame-skull print, charcoal black skateboards.

Kiriyuu sighed.

…..She realised she needed some ambitions.

Unknown to her, her previous ambitions were to get rid of the Giglio Nero, kill Hibari and… that was pretty much it. But those ambitions didn't need to be satisfied anymore. The rage and anger she had held for the Giglio Nero and Hibari had disappeared. She felt better, and happier. Besides, she forgot all about those, so…Now she needed normal ambitions. Well, she had always wanted to learn and play a guitar. She wanted to do some busking on the streets and earn some money. She wanted to learn how to sew. She did, in fact, want to join a boxing club. She wanted to become a snake. Or a baker. Yeah, that too. Oh, oh, and she wanted to learn how to speak Japanese and cook better risotto.

_Yeah, that'll do._

That's normal enough. Or…Perhaps… too normal. She stifled a sniff; she felt like crying…

Guiseppe bought her a plane ticket back to Japan; she wasn't part of the Giglio Nero family and so, decided to pack her things and leave for Namimori. In fact, she wanted to leave now. The Giglio Nero had shown mercy; she didn't know any top secret plans (except from her participation in the experiment, secretly) or proper history, so she was not dubbed a threat if they did exile her. And yes, she was banished therefore. Elia was still in the Giglio Nero; she gave Kiriyuu her last packet of exploding gum – just in case. Although… Kiriyuu didn't know what she would do with exploding gum. Actually, she had one idea, but Longchamp had to be here.

Kiriyuu was still depressed.

Yes, normal people suffered from depression every now and then. That was her one step forward in becoming more and more normal than she hoped. She hadn't properly packed her things; she just hadn't been in the mood, so she only sported a few clothes, some essentials like money and food, and a few books, some old magazines and a pack of felt tip pens and paper. She also had her walkman, but she didn't feel like listening to music.

She was just too depressed.

_I should be happy; I'm going back to Namimori….I'll see Hibari and Tsuna and the others again…  
__Oh yeah, that's right.  
__I'm no longer part of anything.  
__I'm out of the circle._

_I'm nobody._

_I'm - _

"….Ottuso Kiriyuu?"

She looked up.

It was a man, roughly mid-forties perhaps, with slicked-back brown hair. He was wearing a black suit, neatly pressed and folded with a black tie. His acquaintance, a boy around Kiriyuu's age, had brown hair of a lighter shade, shimmering nicely under the light, that reached slightly past his shoulders, and sparkling blue eyes. Cute, she thought, with an inward shrug of her shoulders. Gah, now wasn't the time to think about this. She didn't recognise these two people before her at all.

"My name is Sawada Iemitsu, I'm Tsuna's father. This is my subordinate, Basil. We have orders from the Vongola to collect you." The man in the smart dress suit introduced himself to her in fluent Japanese while Basil pleasantly shook her hand and greeted her firmly in a strange, Shakespearian way (really), "We have received news about your trial, and your exile. You have our condolences."

She blinked at them, clueless. Tsuna's father?? Of course, his mother doesn't know anything about the mafia; that means all the mafia stuff came from his father's side. And she remembered vaguely what Tsuna said about his father before. He called him a loser. Oh dear. She looked back down. "It's alright. Did Reborn send for you?"

Tsuna's 'loser' father nodded, "Yes, before his disappearance, he issued us an order to come and find you, Kiriyuu-san."

"Wait – disappearance? He's… missing? What do you mean?"

"Yes, even the tenth Vongola boss, and most of his Guardians, and acquaintances, are missing, too. There have been numerous searches for their whereabouts, but it has been…. Unsuccessful. We believe they were hit by the Ten-Year-Bazooka."

Kiriyuu looked up in horror as soon as the words 'Ten-Year-Bazooka' came into the conversation. Even though she still couldn't remember,something about this topic felt… familiar.

"Reborn has also offered you a proposition; he would like you to join the Vongola, and serve under the Tenth Vongola boss, and to swear fealty and loyalty."

Kiriyuu blinked dumbly for a brief moment, then – "B-But why…? I… They said I did a lot of terrible stuff…"

"Maybe, but that's all in the past now." Iemitsu said with a smile. "And Reborn-sama and even the tenth Vongola boss himself have positively expressed the trust they hold towards you."

Kiriyuu couldn't believe it. A silly smile suddenly grew on her face. "R-Really…?"

He nodded. "Would you like to join the Vongola, Kiriyuu?"

They watched her reaction; at first, she went wide-eyed like a fish, then her mouth opened and closed, she tried to say something but it came out as garbled, gibbering nonsense, and then she began to hyperventilate, brushed a hand through her hair, fanned herself continuously even though the airport had air conditioning.

"Uh…." Iemitsu put a hand on her shoulder, and she leapt, "…are you alright?"

"… Yes." She whimpered out breathlessly, then - "YES!" She screamed, jumping up and down as if she had won the lottery or something. "Yes yes yes yes yes!"

"So you would like to join the – "

"Yes!" She hugged Basil tightly, and then she shook his hand fiercely that his arm almost popped off its socket. She hugged Iemitsu next and shook his hand, too.

"….Um. Congratulations." Iemitsu replied, then he wondered why he had said that; usually, he had never congratulated anyone for joining the Vongola because joining the Vongola was an honour and shouldn't – ahh, well, whatever. He was a little amused at her response and decided to further go with the 'flow'.

Kiriyuu suddenly stopped, and stared. Basil blinked at her expectantly, before looking up at Iemitsu. "What's this stuff about the Guardians?" She blurted out.

"Ahh, yes, Tsuna's Guardians. A scramble for the rings went by during your recovery at hospital. The opposition were the Varia, you see. Tsuna emerged victorious, along with his friends, Gokudera Hayato, Yamamoto Takeshi, Sasagawa Ryohei, Hibari Kyouya, Rokudo Mukuro and Lambo."

"WHAT? I-I missed out on the scramble…?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"A-And I can't be a…a….Guardian(?)." She looked distraught, like as if she was about to cry.

"…Unfortunately, yes. The identity of the Guardians and the distribution of the rings to their corresponding attributes have already been decided."

"WHAT? EVEN LAMBO?!" She shrieked, and half the passengers stared at their direction, "REBORN CHOSE **A BABY**OVER _ME_?!"

Iemitsu went a bit red, "Yes, Lambo of the Bovino."

"WHAT? ROKUDO MUKURO?" She couldn't remember Mukuro at all yet his name kept popping up all over the place. "…Reborn chose a complete stranger over me?" Her lip trembled.

"Yes, Mukuro of the Kokuyo." Iemitsu replied, "I'm terribly sorry. He now has a representative, Chrome Dukuro. She visited you in hospital."

"Oh. I… didn't know." Kiriyuu uttered out guiltily. Who was Chrome?

Iemitsu pointed out, "it's alright, Kiriyuu, you were recovering, and we couldn't risk your health anymore. What you did in Kokuyo for Tsuna was very brave and personally, I would like to thank you for protecting him."

"… I protected Tsuna?"

He remembered that she didn't remember anything about Kokuyo. "…Do you still accept our offer?" He quickly said.

Kiriyuu frowned deeply with her arms crossed over her chest, and Basil chuckled at her response. Iemitsu glanced at him, and Basil quickly turned away in embarrassment. "Yeah." She said; she hadn't noticed Basil's reaction. "Yes, of course I will accept. What can I do then? Do you guys have a reconnaissance unit, maybe? I'm good at that stuff. I'm good at sneaking around." She asked, her eagerness had returned, and she was positively gleaming with happiness as she looked back up at them.

Iemitsu was still talking; Basil had decided to keep quiet for the moment. "Actually, we have several positions available. Ahem. You can join me and Basil, and – "

"What do you guys do?" Kiriyuu asked promptly.

"....We're part of the - " Iemitsu looked uncomfortable talking about the Vongola in public. He noticed a couple who had been struggling with their suitcases and waddling past Kiriyuu were now staring oddly at him, and he cleared his throat, " – I mean… We hold press conferences and sell cheap household products door-to-door."

The odd couple looked away. Basil looked up at Iemitsu, who let out a breath of relief. Phew!

"Oh. Sounds… boring." Kiriyuu mumbled out.

Iemitsu sweat-dropped. "However, Reborn thought you might be interested…. in applying for the _Varia_." His eyes lit up and his eyebrows wiggled.

"…The… Varia?"

"The Varia." Basil chimed in, nodding his head.

Kiriyuu turned to him, "…Huh? B-But I want to go back to Namimori and see Hibari…"

"I assure you that you will see him again. Reborn said you are exactly the person the Varia are looking for and this may be your only chance. They're actually… not currently recruiting for an extra member, but Reborn, and even Tsuna, has put you forward, and… you have the potential. I don't see any reason why they would refuse your entry." He finished, with another smile.

"…But I heard the Varia are full of scheming, crazy, bloodthirsty and ironically sarcastic individuals with their own selfish motives." She mumbled out, then - "Hey! I am NOT like that!!" Kiriyuu snapped at them, and then she slumped back down in her seat, staring at her shoes.

"Kiriyuu-san, it's not like that," Basil quickly replied, and she looked up at him again, "Tsuna-dono has thy best interest in heart. He means well."

She blinked at him, then – "But… I heard the Varia is run by this homicidal maniac. I've had enough of homicidal maniacs." She was thinking about Hibari.

Iemitsu and Basil sweat-dropped again. "…You're not going to let that fact stop you from applying, are you?" Iemitsu said, as a confidence booster. Oooh god, he wondered how Xanxus would put up with this girl. Or how this girl would put up with Xanxus himself. Actually, he had a rough idea of what would happen – this girl would probably give up three minutes into the application process, having been tortured and verbally, physically abused by the existing Varia members, and run home crying. Somehow, something about this girl told him otherwise. The Varia would be merely another test, and could be accounted as nothing compared to what she had been through previously. Kiriyuu had been through a lot.

"So, would you like to apply and put your CV forth to the Varia?" He asked, noticing the blank expression on her face, as if she had zoned out.

Being offered a spot in the Varia was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity career-wise. But still….

What about Namimori?  
What about her friends?  
What about…. _Hibari? _

He would understand, right? Kiriyuu sat back in her chair, a heavy sigh escaping from her lips in disbelief.

She honestly didn't know.

**Namimori**

_Japan_

Hibari was on his roof, reading, but the sparkle from his newly-acquired Cloud ring reflected the sunlight into his eyes often and he considered throwing it halfway down the street. Sometimes, he also wondered why he broke bones and suffered from cuts just for this. Hibird had flown away from his shoulder to a nearby telephone wire to peck at its wings, joined by a few other bird buddies or so.

Kiriyuu never came back.

Previously, he'd cleaned the house and finished off his homework that were due weeks to come, abiding by a strict schedule. Now, he was taking a break. He had taken a book and climbed out from the upper-storey window, the window nearest the bathroom, up to the roof. Hibari hadn't been back down on earth for more than an hour, stuck in his own world.

Kiriyuu's room was still left the way it was.

The house smelled of roses and gleamed like jewels under the sun. It was the most famous house in the district. Appearances were desirably to be kept uptight until the girl named Ottuso Kiriyuu arrived. She had once tarnished his reputation enough with idiotic antics and the ridiculous 'alias' that she had been his cousin for a couple of months. Rumours about them flew fast.

_Kiriyuu Rehabilitation_ came into effect to shake off all those rumours and their validity.

Someone knocked on his front gate, and he looked away from his book after a few seconds, when he realised that the annoying sounds still hadn't stopped. Hibird flew from the telephone wire, zooming circles around the gate. He hoped whoever it is, whether it was the exasperatingly irksome salesman, or over-weight social worker with another cousin, would leave, knowing that Hibari was on the roof and could perfectly see them, yet also see him opting to ignore them.

The knocking didn't cease. Instead, became much more frantic.

Thoroughly irritated, Hibari put his book down. "Hurry up and open the door." He yelled. Okay, so maybe he had some 'help' with chores today.

"Yes, yes, cousin-san." A girl tiptoed over to the door in her bare feet over the freshly-mowed lawn, dressed in a white flower dress. She struggled, still trying to unlock the gate, turned to him. "I can't open it…" She wailed up at him.

"Useless…" Hibari glared at her, and then slipped off the roof, landed shortly a few feet from her, walked up to the gate.

He opened it.

It wasn't a salesman. It wasn't Kenji the overweight worker. It was somebody else.

Someone he hadn't seen for a long time.

"…Uh….Hey, Hibari," She said, quietly, almost nervously. A few suitcases sat limply beside her on the threshold. She mustered a small smile at him, "…I'm back."

* * *

This was the original ending to this story, but as you can see, it is so unaccomplished so I got my lazy butt off the sofa and wrote some more. Therefore, there is more Hibari x Kiriyuu along the way…

**Next chapter (Epilogue):**

_Confessions of a Teenage Hitman_

I'll also put up the first chapter of the Spanner OC the same day I update the last chapter of this story. Unfortunately, I don't have much of an extreme plot bunny for the new story.


	51. Epilogue

I don't like odd numbers, but this bit that was originally attached to Chapter 50 made it far too long so I split it off from Chapter 50. I hope you are somewhere comfortable, and enjoy it to the fullest even though it's far too long, a bit pointless, weird, and it also has so many paragraphs...

**WARNING:** OOC...

**Epilogue**

_Confessions of a Teenage Hitman_

Hibari's lips met Kiriyuu's in an instant.

She didn't even know what she had done to deserve this. Here she was, trapped within the cage of his arms, and her lips were captured within his feverish, fervent kiss. Her back was pushed against the wall - Hibari certainly had something to prove; he explored her lips roughly, and his hold on her tightened that she thought she was going to break in half. Kiriyuu let out a meek, muffled whimper under him, her hands awkwardly placed around his neck. She could hear him smirking as he kissed her hungrily, now trailing his lips to her cheek and down to her jawline, and finally to the nape of her neck. She gasped; his hair tickled her chin and his arms closing further down around her like iron bands, she had to clutch onto him, tilt her head back slightly.

Hibari didn't seem to care, just intent on ravaging the skin of her neck, and Kiriyuu thought her eyelids were going to droop when -

She thought she spotted someone spying on them from behind the crack of Hibari's open door. She squinted her eyes thoroughly, then tried to pry Hibari off her. He ignored her, still continuing in his endeavours. "Hibari, who's that?"

A squeak came from behind the door and a girl in a white sundress came waddling out, her face a nice, growing red shade as she watched shyly. "S-Sorry, I-I didn't mean to – "

Kiriyuu tried to get him off her, "Hibari, someone's here…" She protested weakly, wriggling in his grip.

He was now biting on her neck again, nibbling and suckling at her flesh. "…Ignore her." He murmured, and she blinked numbly.

"Hibari, she's staring right at us(!). I can't do these things in public!" Kiriyuu hissed, and a few moments later, she could feel his lips leave her skin, and he was now muttering something incoherently under his breath.

Hibari poked his head back from Kiriyuu's neck and turned sharpish to the girl who had been watching them. "Get out. Your business here is done." He didn't want any unnecessary distractions.

"Urh, who is she…?" Kiriyuu asked, a little suspiciously, still in Hibari's iron hold.

"Oh," This other girl said, and then, she smiled at her somewhat awkwardly, "I'm Kyouya's cousin, Kusanagi Hiroyuki, but everyone calls me Ryuki – "

Kiriyuu suddenly pushed Hibari to arm's length and he untangled his arms off her. "WHAT? 'Kyouya'…?" She suddenly shrieked loudly, gaping from Hibari to Ryuki, "…C-Cousin?"

"…Er, yes, is-is there a problem?"

Silence.

"I'm Hibari's cousin, not you! Get out!" Kiriyuu screamed angrily at her, "Get out of my house!"

Ryuki moved to place her hand on Hibari's arm. "Kyouya, I'm scared…"

"Get your dirty paws off him!" Kiriyuu pried her arm away from his and then brushed past her, and pushed her away, effectively kicking her out of the house. She hauled her luggage in quickly. "And stay out! Hibari's mine, you got that? MINE!"

The door was slammed shut in front of Ryuki's face.

Kiriyuu, now inside the house, turned to Hibari. "What the heck was that all about? Guiseppe said I should come back because he thinks you're good for my health and I don't think I was gone for too long - I even turned down the Varia just to come back and I see you and she-she – "

"She only comes to clean the house on Saturdays."

"Well, she's never coming back, now that I'm here!" She stomped around for a bit, cursed furiously under her breath, and then stopped. She didn't look as angry as she did anymore, and was now taking deep breaths in and out once more. Her face returned to its normal colour, and she ultimately grimaced, "…She's really your cousin?"

"I don't care."

Kiriyuu blinked, then looked at the ground. "…Uh…O-Okay." She let out a deep sigh. "S-Sorry about that, I guess I…uh, I'll…I'll just let her back in - "

"No. Just leave her. It was time she left anyway."

Before Hibari could perhaps pounce on her again, she held her arm out quickly. "…Wait - I really need to talk to you first. I'll make it quick…" She quickly took out a piece of paper from her pocket. She looked at it, then back up at him. "…Urm, I've prepared a-a list… like a speech, a thank-you speech…"

"For what?"

"For… taking care of me ever since I stepped foot in Japan, but now, I should really – Okay, I'll try and make this quick." She skimmed the list contents. "…Ahem. Dear Hibari, I wrote this because I want to thank you for providing me with food and shelter. Thank you for not blowing my cover when you discovered that I was a hitman… actually, I don't think you really 'discovered' I was, I told you. Anyway, thank you for not killing me when you had the chance since I had plotted to kill you ever since we met – " Her reddening face betrayed her growing embarrassment.

Hibari shifted himself on the spot. She suddenly looked back up at him from the list, her face aghast. He asked, "What's wrong?"

"…Um, I can't read the rest …"

"It's your own handwriting."

"I was writing this in the taxi…."Kiriyuu squeaked. "I'm… I'm sorry…!" She then bawled out, rubbing furiously at her eyes. When she moved her hands away, there was a huge amount of black mascara on the side of her fist, scattered over the side of her pinky and the flat of her palm. She didn't seem to notice.

Hibari folded his arms tightly, his expression clearly holding indifference to this situation she was finding so awkward. "Just tell me what you want to say. You have two minutes."

She blinked, then threw her gaze to her feet, "Right. Okay, I guess I could try. Okay, two minutes, yeah, that….that should be enough. Well, I… I… want to thank you - not just that, I also realised there are so many things I still haven't done with you – OH MY GOD! I'm so sorry, that totally didn't sound right at all! I-I didn't mean to imply - Oh god, I mean, oh geez, this is so embarrassing – "

Hibari twitched ever-so-slightly. Another cringe-worthy moment enough to last a lifetime.

Kiriyuu flailed around helplessly, her hands clawing at her head as if she was about to tear her hair out. "See? This is why I prepare! I'm so bad at communicating! This is why I can't be a spokesperson, or-or one of those politicians who make mind-numbing speeches! Not that I want to one… This is like the last time when I was back in Dr Shamal's clinic! I just completely embarrassed myself in front of Ryohei-nii-sama by saying all the wrong stuff!" She wailed.

"Hurry up and get this over with."

"Okay, okay… Anyway, I meant that I haven't had the opportunity to see and do a lot of other things that is available in this world, with you, beside me – like, well… travelling. Yeah, I know I went to the Disciplinary Training Programme with you but that was horrible and I really would like to go somewhere else with you other than to some haunted log cabin that smelt like wet cat fur with ten other guys with obsessions over Elvis Presley-style hair; it's okay if you don't want to go to Disneyland if you're uncomfortable, I respect that, I really do. But I would…. If you would let me, I would, erm… really like to spend some more time with you."

Hibari watched her. She put a hand on her hip and the other went to brush back a section of her hair. Her face was flushing terribly under the daylight.

"Anyway, uh, yeah, I still can't remember what has happened, because I think it was meant to be March and when I woke up in hospital, it was June or something, I can't remember – and there's meant to be… more memories there – well, duh, it's my brain, of course there's memories but the only ones I can remember the most is my time here with you, just up to when Longchamp came, and there's meant to be more but I just cannot remember them at all, I can remember some, though…" She looked to the side. "Something about a war…. Something about me in the future… Something bad happened to me, yeah, I really don't remember much. Anyway, I thought – I mean, I… would… erm, like to… have more memories to make up for the ones I am missing… You see, I have… this void."

"Void?"

"Yeah, it's like this bottomless pit that's inside me – trust me, it's not my stomach, haha." She guffawed at her own joke, then cleared her throat and straightened herself, "I don't even know why I have this void, it's like this empty feeling within me, unfulfilled and lacking. I'm missing something. I've… always been missing something…"

She took a deep breath, then raised her hand meekly in question, "I – "

"If you're going to tell me your life story, I'm not interest – "

" - I'm an only child; my father passed away when I was about… seven or something, I honestly don't remember much about him, only my mother." Kiriyuu had to tell him this; it was amazing Hibari hadn't beaten her up yet for interrupting _him_. "She was a hitman, belonging to the Giglio Nero family, and… she realised she wouldn't be able to take care of me properly so I was sent to a boarding school while she was working abroad on assignments. I tried to do my best in my studies and I was finally allowed to go home with my Uncle when he came for me. Back in Genoa, I went to the Academy."

Hibari rolled his eyes, Kiriyuu wasn't looking at him, and now busy scuffling at her shoes.

"…. They said that in the mafia world, everyone acted alone even though we belonged to 'families'. It was still every man for himself. A dog-eat-dog world." She bit her lip, "…But I didn't believe that, because I never felt as though I had a proper family. So families mean the world to me; I didn't care what family I was in, or who was in it. I just wanted to be in one so badly. I wanted to prove myself. I wanted to get rid of this empty feeling I had."

She continued.

"They realised I had this… well, they realised I could aim for something a long distance away and never miss. There were others like me. I didn't train for a long time; I decided to go back to the Giglio Nero. I did a lot of bad things." Kiriyuu said, but her voice was monotone. "One day, they tell me to go to Namimori and find someone named Hibari Kyouya. They wanted me to kill him. I didn't bring my sniper rifle. It didn't feel satisfying to kill someone without them knowing who you were, or where you were, when the bullet would penetrate through their foreheads and make them drop to the ground in a piddle of their own blood… So I approached you under a false alias. Your 'cousin'."

"I realised you were alone and the way how you were brought up was entirely different compared to the way I was. You were irrevocably alone yet you'd managed to adapt to it. You didn't care if you were missing something or the fact that you had no-one in this world except yourself." She looked up at him, tilted her head to the side. "I was… interested. Curious, possibly… fascinated, trapped within your…urh… Hibari-ness. I wanted to know more about you, and what kind of person you were."

Suddenly, she let out a weak chuckle. "I wanted to learn more about you. You, this… this person who was maliciously violent… this person who beat everyone up whenever he pleased and had everyone wrapped around his finger by installing fear. At some point, I wondered if that was your way of interacting with someone, the way of tackling your loneliness and grabbing attention so I went along with it, but I'm no shrink, so who am I to assume?"

Hibari yawned. She didn't notice.

"Anyway, you know what happens next. I realised I couldn't kill you no matter what I did, and even though Reborn gave me a new sniper. We lived together, got mixed up with all these weird happenings and I gradually opened up this side of me which even I've never even been before, if that makes any sense. I changed into this completely different person; I opened up to you without you even realising. And suddenly, I'm in hospital because I 'fell off a roof'. Then one day, I woke up and I was in Italy. You weren't there; and suddenly, I found out what I was missing."

"What?"

She bit her lip and scuffled around again, hopping from one foot to the other. Kiriyuu shot Hibari a discomfited glance. "I was… I was missing…. _**You**_." She went bright red. "You were missing in my life. So…. I would like to have more memories. Of you." Then she gagged.

Hibari checked his wristwatch. Two minutes had already passed.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, that was so cheesy. What I really meant by that, was that we still haven't gone to see a movie together at an actual cinema, or had a picnic yet, or fishing, or… doing chores, yeah - I really miss doing chores with you, I miss… fighting over you for the last ice cream in the fridge and the television…"

She swallowed.

"….and I miss doing the laundry and getting to rifle through all your underpants, and hanging them up to dry, and ironing your clothes and folding them, and I miss thumping on the bathroom door yelling at you to hurry up, and then you'd beat me up once you emerged out and even though that's not entirely a pleasant experience, I… just know that I miss that regime."

Pause.

"Okay, you know what? I'm a freak. Hibari, tell me I'm a freak."

"You're a freak."

"Thanks." She sniffled, "And I… really miss your insults… and the way how you glare at me when I do something wrong – actually, you always glare at me but sometimes you can be nice, if not, a little puzzling and confusing and intimidating, but I do know that I really miss you barging into my room every morning two hours before school and telling me to get up and get dressed and then when I go downstairs, there's always breakfast for me on the table and… and…"

Her rant/confession _**still **_hadn't finished yet.

"And… then we'd get our outdoor shoes and I would be walking with you to school and then once the bell rings for home time, I'd see you at the gate waiting for me and… and….then we'd arrive at the house, and then when we were in, you'd tell me to get my books out and you'd go over my homework with me and help me with it. And then if it's the weekend, we'd play video games or do more chores or finish homework and…and…"

Kiriyuu wiped at her eye, making more mascara smudge down her cheek, and smiled awkwardly at herself.

"…. I…I was …. Happy. B-Because… I've-I've never done anything like that before, and no-one's done anything like that for me before either… and even though… it's… probably something perceived as insignificant to somebody else, like something so little that you do everyday, and… something that you have to do that you don't think about it consciously – something that doesn't make the world a better place – or make you a better person… And I may not be someone with superpowers and genius intellect, but… they were so little things that made my life worthwhile... and… I liked it. I cherished every moment of it."

She inhaled a shaky breath, beginning to gasp and wheeze quickly as she struggled not to cry.

"I remember after we'd done the chores, the porch door would always be open, and you'd have dinner waiting. We'd either go to the porch to have dinner, or we're always sitting opposite or if we're watching TV, you'd be on the couch and I'd be on my favourite spot on the floor, right underneath the air conditioner. But if it was a scary movie you'd let me hide behind your back or chew on your cushions, and then when it's night, we'd close the porch door and then you would take long baths that I'd have to heat up my own water or if I'm lucky, you'd salvage some hot water. And then sometimes you'd let me stay with you in your room and lay a futon on the ground and we'd both go to sleep…. ready for tomorrow."

Kiriyuu snivelled tearfully.

"And-And we haven't walked by the canal for a long time… nor have we gone to see a sunset and for some reason, but I really, like really, really want to see you shaving in the morning at some point in my life and I want a chance to help you do up your tie before school even though you do everything perfectly. I want… I really want to see you wearing a trenchcoat, or-or a suit, some point in my life, and - Yeah, I know, weird. Anyway, I – Oh, excuse me."

She looked away from him, and then pulled out a hanky from her pocket, and began to weep silently into it. She turned back to him, her mascara running down her cheeks like mini black rivulets. She wailed loudly, darkening her face even more, "I'm sorry, it's hay fever."

"You don't have hay fever."

Her face went a million red shades from chin up, and she cleared her throat, but still drenched in tear-stained, smudged mascara. "Ahem. But it would really be great if I could, y'know, do all that – "

Hibari looked at the closed door. "Kiriyuu – "

"Wait, let me finish. I'm not done yet and I would really like to tell you what I want to say to you even though I'm starting to cry for some reason. Ahem. No, I didn't exactly come back just for those reasons, it's because I-I really, really like you, no, I love you and I want to, um, probably, well… get married to you if you let me propose to you and, I would, actually, FYI, get down on one bended knee but I can't at the moment because my denims are too tight and we're only kids and I also don't have a ring with me - "

He glanced at her tight jeans. She glanced at the Cloud ring on his finger. They both raised an eyebrow at the other.

Kiriyuu cursed mentally at how her sentences spilled out – she'd practised this speech in her mind for ages and now when she was finally here, the speech practically dumped her and left her like a gibbering wreck and somehow, she hadn't seen Hibari for such a long time and now she was thoroughly embarrassing herself; this was NOT how she had imagined her reunion with Hibari would be like! God, why was this so awkward? "Okay, I'm sorry, that totally didn't sound right. Let me start over. Hi, Hibari, I'm back, because, um – well, Guiseppe said you were good for my health and I have nowhere to go – yeah, that's it, and - "

Kiriyuu looked up at him sheepishly.

"This… really isn't easy for me to say, but…" She said, firmly, sternly, gathering up more courage than she would've mustered as she looked back at him squarely in the eye, "I would… I would do anything for you, Hibari. I would make it my duty to protect you even though you don't need someone to protect you; I would even quit being a hitman, if you want me to. Because I can't… I can't imagine life without you." She chewed on her lip, shifted her weight from one leg to the other and looked up at him, a little warily, nervously.

Silence.

"…H-Hibari?"

He still didn't respond.

Uh-oh. It was the stage of Hibari-ness which Kiriyuu called 'Silent Hibari'. Silent Hibari equals trouble. Maybe more, and maybe it was because of the emotional confession Kiriyuu unintentionally blasted him with – it was probably far too much. Maybe Hibari would explode. She gulped, her eyes glued to the floor, now she was patiently waiting for him to yell at her and tell her to get lost and maybe grow a pair.

She blinked thoroughly when she felt an iron grip on her arms, and she was pulled into his embrace without a word once more, with his arms wrapped firmly around her waist and his nose pressed against the small nape of her neck. Hibari always had this quaint smell to him; something husky, tight, and endearing, mirroring his exact appearance. Kiriyuu blinked aloofly at herself, then smiled ineptly, as she lifted her own arms up to Hibari, clutched at his back tightly as his hand let go of one arm, to sweep away wisps of her hair away from her face. He pulled back from the embrace, his thumb compressing over the slight bulge of her lips; he leaned in and –

Kiriyuu was left standing by herself stuck in a coughing fit of noxious Ten-Year-Bazooka gas. When she finally opened one eye, then the other, she gasped, and then looked around desperately. Her rear end hurt; it must've been where the bazooka hit (it goes to show that not everyone arrives at the future glamorously or generously for all that matters).

She let out a strangled roar of frustration that echoed thoroughly within the neighbourhood. "NUUUUUOOOOOOOOOO!" She kicked a stone from her path. "DAMN IT! Out of all the times, why now? Seriously, why do these things keep happening to me! Lambo, I'm going to pull all your hair out once I get back - !" She stomped around furiously, cursing erratically and pulling at her hair. Then she stopped.

How would she explain the Ten-Year-Bazooka's effect once she returned? Her TYL self would be swapped, right?

Kiriyuu then looked back up, her eyes widening temporarily to the size of saucers. Shakily, she took one step forward into the residence she had been transported to. She recognised the same oak tree in the corner next to that pink flowering tree she mistook for a sakura blossom tree; it must've survived all these ten years. Even the lawn looked kempt and tidy, not a weed in sight or a grass out of place. Flowers were arranged neatly in square perimeters around the lawn, while the stone path was as erratic as ever. Kiriyuu stopped marvelling at the front garden and looked at the house. The paint on the plate in front of the door was peeling slightly, other than that, the house looked intact. The front door was closed, windows closed, nothing moved.

This was Hibari's house. Only ten years later. Kiriyuu turned back to where she had been standing; the front gate was swinging eerily, a few grocery bags on the steps. She put two and two together and realised – "**I live here**." She murmured to herself, "I live here. I just bought groceries, and I was about to go inside the house."

A sense of excitement rushed through her and she quickly ran to the grocery bags. She rummaged around, only to find the usual items she'd usually get from a list Hibari concocted and the supposed house keys; but then she found 'her' purse, and flipped the black leather open. She looked inside. Only a few cents. No credit card. Nothing to establish her identity in ten years time. Oh, wait. She found a bank receipt – from a cash withdrawal ATM. She looked at it, then promptly frowned.

"Why am I so poor?" She asked out loud to no-one in particular.

Dismissing the receipt, she grabbed the bags and hastily ran up to the front door, fishing out the keys she'd found earlier, and with trembling hands, hurriedly unlocked the front door and slid it open.

Kiriyuu was amazed to see how little the house had changed over the course of ten years. She looked around enquiringly, a little nervously. "Hello?" She called, stepping into the lounge and looking around. Nobody was there, only a new couch and a new TV. Kiriyuu stormed towards the kitchen and poked around there, too. The kitchen tap hadn't been properly turned off; Kiriyuu turned it off and then looked around meekly once more. There was a new stainless steel fridge, no password feature; and a new washing machine/tumble dryer. That was good; it meant no more laundry. "Hello, Hibari? Are you there?"

Still nothing.

With her growing impatience lodged in her gut, Kiriyuu rushed out from downstairs and ran up the stairs. She missed Hibari's closed door for the moment and ran into her own room – only to realise that it had become the storeroom again. She raised an eyebrow, and then, snivelled slightly.

"But…this is meant to be my room…"

Kiriyuu returned back to Hibari's door and lifted her hand to the doorknob. She actually felt anxious; what if TYL Hibari was there? What if her future self had gone shopping and Hibari was in his room playing video games? She pressed her ear against the door and tried to listen for something. There was nothing; frowning again, Kiriyuu jerked on the handle and pulled the door open.

The first thing she saw was a king-sized bed. With two pillows. Kiriyuu's eye twitched and snivelled for no reason. Hibari never had a king-sized bed, nor did he have two pillows; he only had one. And he changed his duvet cover, too. She put a hand over her mouth. She ignored the bed for the moment and turned to the closet – which was not a built-in closet to save room, and opened the doors – and a built-in ironing board flopped up, making her scream. When she calmed down, she chuckled awkwardly at herself and folded the board back up. Again, her eye twitched. The wardrobe was filled with men's clothes _**and**_ women's clothes, both in their individual corner. She looked at Hibari's side of the closet (the right), and waded through a few neat black suits and shirts, some casual clothing – clothes Kiriyuu recognised as Hibari's.

She looked at her side (the left); there were a lot of black jackets, and shirts, all professional – of a variety of pale colours and pinstripes – she found a few skirts as well – one was even a pencil skirt - a pair of formal, black trousers and a waistcoat, and even a charcoal-grey trenchcoat. She waded through thoroughly and found some more casual items of clothing, and then a black cocktail dress with lace trimming. Hmm, very Italian. Kiriyuu closed the wardrobe again, and looked around the room. Hibari's games console was gone; so was the TV. Now there was a bookshelf filled with all sorts of books, and a desk with a large stack of unsorted documents and stationery. Even the curtains had changed.

Kiriyuu walked up to the billboard by the desk and stared. There were a lot of photos – mostly of a woman, with brown, curled hair and green eyes, featured in all sorts of different occasions. There was one where she was grinning widely at the camera, holding up a huge rainbow trout in one hand, the other hand holding a fishing rod.

"TYL me." She croaked out, "I kept my hair brown. Urgh, I hate brown. Obviously not in the future." There was another one of her in some place that resembled Disneyland. Another photo had her standing around with a group of – "N-No way…?" Kiriyuu grabbed that particular photo off the board and stared, then she giggled. "TYL everyone… Look at Ryohei-nii-san, he has much more hair than he does now!"

The best was still to come – she spotted a photo hidden under more photos, and took it out. Then her jaw practically dropped as she gawked at it. A man was featured in this photo with her. She didn't know who took this photo, but they were somewhere in the mountains – maybe mountain climbing or something – and she was carrying a large bag and waving at the camera while the man had his arms crossed and –

"TYL Hibari…." She gushed, and she stuffed her knuckles into her mouth. "…He looks different. He's lost weight. And there's something... pointy about him."

She inspected the photo carefully. Seriously, why did everything about this Hibari in this photo seem so, well, as she said before, pointy? His chin, his nose, his hair, his angled shoulders, even the lapels of his shirt. A sound from downstairs made her jerk up in surprise. Hibari? He was….home? Eeeek. She stuffed the photos into her pocket for the moment and ran back downstairs, stopped at the open front door. "I'm pretty sure I closed it." She looked around. "Hibari?" She called out loud. "Hiba – "

A loud explosion from within the lounge shook the entire house; the windows smashed and the ground rocked fiercely, sending her flying completely out the open door, but someone caught her flailing body just before she landed back on the lawn, and then this someone was holding onto her very tightly and protecting her from the blast with his back as bits and pieces of the destroyed lounge flew out of the broken window, as she was momentarily crushed against his chest with her back lying on the grass. She was choking slightly, and once the fireballed house stopped smoking, she looked up.

A pair of steely, dark eyes stared back at her. She couldn't see him properly.

"….Do I know you?" She squeaked out. There was slight hesitation, then the man on top of her let out a short sigh, and rolled his eyes. Kiriyuu immediately gasped; her jaw dropped and she spluttered out, "H-HIBARI...?"

She then threw her arms around his neck tightly, something watery budding in the corner of her eyes, "Oh my god! I-I didn't even recognise you!(?)" She burnt red with embarrassment. And shame. Lots and lots of shame. She looked back up at him, still blushing profusely, "Y-You've… Changed...So much. So…So…..Beautiful! I… Oh, I'm even crying at the mere sight of you, not that I wasn't, urm, already crying before, ahaha…haha…ha." She laughed awkwardly at herself, smothering away at some tears, "How embarrassing. B-But I'm glad to see that you're well and…. Healthy and… err, slightly much older." She cringed. "….And you're wearing a suit…"

"….Are you alright?" The Hibari of the future had turned his head a little away from her, closed his eyes shortly, then re-opened them and swerved them to her from the corner of his furtive eyes. Kiriyuu blinked at him; she could tell there was something very different about him, not just his looks, his height, his everything. Hibari was Hibari, but there was a different characteristic to him. Something was alluringly sophisticated about his overall demeanour, with hard-on aristocratic, noble and statutory features; obviously mature and ripe, yet his old habits didn't die hard. She ultimately realised Hibari still didn't smile much and never really would. "Are you alright?" He asked again, still with her arms glued around his neck.

Due to the explosion, Kiriyuu was actually temporarily deaf. "WHAT?" She asked out loud, gesturing to her ears and shaking her head. "SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU. SPEAK LOUDER."

He rolled his eyes; he was relatively surprised with the younger self's appearance – charcoal-black smudges down her eyes gave her this weird, gothic vibe, her clothes were patched with some dirt and grass, and her hair was dishevelled. He slowly got off her, still with Kiriyuu hanging off him like those monkey toys with the velcro-sticky hands. Kiriyuu slid back down to the ground. He dusted down his black suit, pieces of grass slipping off his lean shoulders, as Kiriyuu stared at the splendour of TYL Hibari. He really had changed.

Kiriyuu stared back dumbly at the burning house. "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Hibari looked back at her, with that unresponsive stare; head up, eyes down; he was becoming his old, patronizing self all over again. "The Millefiore."

"WHAT? FLOWERS? WHAT ABOUT THE FLOWERS? OH YES, THEY'RE VERY PRETTY. DID I DO THAT?" She blinked at him in sudden amazement, and then she giggled, "OHOHOHO. HIBARI, WHEN DID YOU LEARN ITALIAN?"

Rolling his eyes again as Kiriyuu gawped dazedly around the lawn, Hibari walked up to the mini-Kiriyuu and knelt down to her level. She blinked at him owlishly, and then he looked into her eyes, and said, "Are you hurt anywhere?"

Kiriyuu stared at him ineptly, then – "I THINK I'M ALRIGHT - BUT THERE'S SOMETHING WET AND SQUISHY ON MY HEAD." She emphasised her words slowly and in a matter-of-factly-tone.

Hibari made her look down, took his hands off her ears and swabbed with his finger at the crown of her head, and looked at his fingertip. Blood.

"I'M BLEEDING?" She squawked as she stood stiffly, gaping at the liquid oozing down his finger.

"Stay still." He said.

She hadn't heard him properly again, "WHAT?"

"Give me a bit of your shirt."

"WHAT?"

He let out another sigh and then gestured to her shirt.

Kiriyuu's jaw dropped, and then her shocked look turned into a somewhat angry, clouded expression and she put her arms protectively over her chest. "HIBARI! HOW _DARE_ YOU!(?)"

"Just keep still." He grunted out, and grabbed her wrist despite the fact that she was still squawking in protest, then ripped a small section of her shirt away from her arm, and used it to wrap around the bleeding wound on her head. When he was finished, he pulled back, and she looked up at him sheepishly.

"… Sorry, I thought – "

"You thought what?" A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

Kiriyuu went BRIGHT red and threw her glance back down to the floor, looking all sweaty and flustered again, nibbling on her bottom lip and tugging at the ends of her shirt. She shook her head. Then she looked back at him as he stood up. Wow, he was so tall. She swooned again. "Someone just planted a bomb in the house. Let's go." He said, with his hair glistening in the sun, giving it a bluish glow that she had to shield her eyes from his radiance. Double swoon.

"A BOMB?"

"Yes, a bomb. We can't stay here. It's not safe anymore. I barely made it in time." He took her hand and began to lead her back out of the house, but Kiriyuu's feet were rooted firmly in the ground. Hibari turned back to her expectantly.

She shook her head. "But I just got here, and-and…Someone blew up our house…" She returned back to her normal volume of voice, and began to sniffle as she took out the photos she had saved. "At least I have these..."

Hibari watched her, remembering how much she used to cry when she was younger. He stiffly made his way back to her again. "We have to leave. They almost got to you."

She was snivelling drearily, her fists clenching, more mascara mingling with fresh tears. "Why would they want to blow up our house?"

"Because you're here. You came from the past."

She looked away, tilted her head to one side. "How'd you know I would get hit by the Ten-Year-Bazooka? I didn't see you nearby at all." She suddenly whipped her head up at him, gasping loudly, "...I'm alive! I'm alive in the future!" She bounced up and down the spot, giggling insanely. "And-And…I've been with you ever since…?"

"I had to leave to carry out some extensive research. I came back for you when the Millefiore – "

He was promptly interrupted as Kiriyuu sprang up like a frog and threw her arms around his neck again; Hibari had to catch her under the knees or she'd keep slipping off and ruin his suit. She was now completely full-hugging him tightly, with her legs around his waist, "I'm alive! I'm alive! Oh, I've never been so happy just for being simply alive!"

Hibari looked at her with half-lidded eyes, then sighed. "…Five minutes are up. Looks like you're here to stay for a long time." He smirked somewhat.

"Hrm?" She blinked, "B-But what will Hibari – I mean, you – of the past – what would you do, if I'm stuck here? I'm… basically missing. Oh, no." She croaked out, covering her mouth with her hand.

"What?"

"Poor Hibari. I just came back and now I've been hit by the bazooka… Oh no, the Hibari of the Past…. You're going to find an embarrassing photograph of me and then photocopy it a hundred times and report me as missing using that photograph on a 'Missing Persons' poster!" She wailed.

"My actions in the past are not the priority at the moment." Hibari said calmly.

"Huh?"

"You," he added, "You're not leaving my sight."

She blinked at him numbly again as he stared right into her eyes again. She swallowed somewhat under his steely gaze. There was something more to it when he looked at her now… Kiriyuu smiled awkwardly, "...But I want to go back – I just came home, and…well, we were about to – " Her face went rather red, and she began to mutter and garble under her breath incoherently, hyperventilate, mutter and gibber, the rest. Suddenly, she looked back up. "Hibari, what happened to Elia?"

"…Your apprentice is not part of the mafia anymore."

"Eh?"

"Her biological mother contacted her eight years ago. She left with her real family."

"Oh, r-really…?"

Before Hibari could reply, another voice sounded off: "Kyou-san!"

They turned to face another man, who had hurried out from the back garden behind the house, towards them. Kiriyuu immediately clung tighter to Hibari. His ducktailed-hair was smoking, and he stopped rushing, bent over and panting slightly in front of Hibari as Kiriyuu held on securely. "The Millefiore intruder got away – oh, Chibi-Kyuu-san, you're safe. Looks like we made it after all, Kyou-san."

Kiriyuu gaped at him. "K-Kusakabe?" And he had just called her 'Chibi-Kyuu-san'. Her jaw dropped as he grinned at her, rising back up proudly. "W-What's going on?"

"Ah, we'll fill you in with the details later."

She gasped again, "Oh my god! S-So...We've really been with each other since, like, for all those 10 years? B-But how could you tolerate me for so long?"

Kusakabe coughed into his fist and winced somewhat while Hibari stiffly stood his ground. Kusakabe then said, "Anou, Kyuu-san, we're not allowed to disclose much information to – "

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry for prying. I just wanted to know." She pouted fiercely. Hibari smirked as she began to grumble in Italian. "Hey, um… can I ask what was I like in the future?" She then asked.

Hibari and Kusakabe glanced at one another. Kusakabe then looked at Kiriyuu hoisted up in Hibari's arms, and judging by how tightly she clung onto him; he realised that, obviously, the younger self was a lot more open and affectionate than her older self.

"You were irrational," Hibari began, almost a little tiredly.

"…What does that mean?" She uttered, "Oh, oh, oh! What about my status in the Vongola? Did I… Did I go and train in the Varia?"

"Yes, you trained in the Varia for a few years. You returned back to Namimori just recently. You called yourself a 'part-time member'." Kusakabe replied instead, with a small smile, "But you were very dedicated to your work and the family." He resumed, "Well, we've already received contact; your friends from the past should be here, too."

"Tsuna, Yamamoto and Gokudera? And Reborn, too?"

He nodded extensively, smiling reassuringly at her. " - and Kurokawa Hana has sent us a request. So… Shall we get going now, Kyou-san?"

Hibird returned to Hibari's shoulder, Hibari looked away from the bird at the moment, "Yes, before the neighbours raise suspicions."

She clung onto him, still sniffling, but louder this time, "But this is our house – "

"That house is a decoy."

Kiriyuu whipped her head up to him in shock at Hibari, "_WHAT?_"

He explained the situation to her very calmly, "This house is built on the other side of Namimori. It was constructed to resemble the original house, using the blueprints so everything looks exactly the same."

"So...then... our real house is still very much alive!"

"….Yes." He sighed. "But we have another house."

Hibari prompted her off him; Kiriyuu wasn't receiving the message and was now smothering away at tears in her eyes. Hibari sighed and turned to Kusakabe, gestured to him indicatively. Kusakabe blinked slightly, then hurried over with his arms out, and tugged at Kiriyuu to get off his superior. Then she detached her spangled arms off him, and her tangled legs, and returned back to the ground.

"Another house?" She muttered out in bewilderment.

Kusakabe elbowed her gently, and she turned to him, "Kyou-san established it in a secret location." He whispered to her. "Nobody knows except you two. Not even Reborn-sama. Anou... Kyuu-san," Kusakabe added, "What happened to your eyes?"

"Oh, it's my mascara." She giggled, smudging away the black stains.

"Are you ready?" Hibari had turned to her.

Kiriyuu blinked up at him innocently again, and then nodded, with much more vigour, seemingly enthusiastic with the entire ordeal.

Her tiny hand was encased within his again, and Kiriyuu found herself gawping at her tiny little hand in his, as they began to trod out of the garden and back outside to the street, towards a black car parked a distance away from the house. "Stay close," Hibari instructed calmly, and Kiriyuu nodded, clung to the back of his suit.

Kusakabe fished out the car keys and pressed the button.

_**BOOM!**_

Kusakabe went flying five feet in the air as the car blew up in a display of roaring fire and burnt metal; Hibari grabbed Kiriyuu again, just as their backs slammed on the road. She flopped on top of him with her clenched fists gripping his shirt tightly, trembling somewhat; he had brought his arms up to shield her. When the threat was over, Kusakabe rose to his feet shakily with his jaw practically touching the floor, and Hibari sat up slightly still with Kiriyuu in his arms; she peeked up at him from under his arms, blinking numbly at the spectacle.

"…That was cheap…" Kusakabe muttered under his breath, as he gazed at the burning car. "Guess we need to use the rings to travel from now on."

Kiriyuu, still trapped in Hibari's arms, flailed around under his grip and then eventually poked her head up and sat upright in his lap, still with Hibari's arms around her, and his hands… in a rather inappropriate position. She gawked stupidly at the blazing car, then at his hands, and peeled one off her thigh.

"Am I going to have to get used to this?" She asked, her eyebrow rose up into an elegant arch as she looked at his hand.

At that point, Hibari smirked at her. "This is just the _beginning_."

_**The End**_

* * *

I have written a blog with some sections that explained more for this story, if you would like to check it out. Just go to my **HOMEPAGE** or this URL:

http:(/)/fishandchipz(.)wordpress(.)com/

Remove the brackets and it should take you directly to my blog. Unfortunately, I decided not to continue with the spin-off or the sequel to this fic. Sorry! I'd prefer it if this story remained 'solo' if you get what I mean.

Anyway, if you kinda noticed... my self-esteem for this story went right downhill at the start of the 'Mukuro saga' (which was... Chapter...33?). To be honest, I think I could've written a better ending, but I was already finding it so difficult, I tried to make it right but it still feels pretty much in shambles. Ahh, well. This was an extreme plot bunny anyway!

Until then – take care, my wonderful readers, study hard in school/work, and thank you very much for supporting this story even though it was completely insane at some points.

Lots of love from Fish and Chips xxx


End file.
